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  4.    <title>Newsbusters - Welcome to NewsBusters, a project of the Media Research Center (MRC), America’s leading media watchdog in documenting, exposing </title>
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  10.  <title>NPR: Columbia Agitators' Call for 'Intifada' Just an 'Anti-Israel Slogan'?</title>
  11.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2024/05/03/npr-columbia-agitators-call-intifada-just-anti-israel-slogan</link>
  12.  <description>Taxpayer-supported National Public Radio has picked sides in the Israel-Hamas war, supporting the students/terrorist supporters camping on the quads of progressive colleges campuses.
  13.  
  14. This is how NPR’s Up First newsletter (a summary of what NPR considers the must-know stories of the day) on Wednesday morning described the illegal occupation by pro-Hamas agitators at Columbia University:
  15.  
  16.  
  17. NPR's Brian Mann tells Up First that Columbia students were shocked, dismayed, and stunned by the overwhelming force used by police. Columbia spokesman Ben Chang said in a press conference that protesters were frightening other students. Mann adds that despite this, there’s been a lot of community support for these encampments.
  18.  
  19. Lena Whitney, a City College graduate who witnessed the police action last night, told NPR, “These students are putting their lives at risk; they’re putting their jobs, their diplomas at risk because they’re fighting for something bigger -- the right to life for Palestinians.”
  20.  
  21.  
  22. One would have to dig up the online transcript of Mann’s report, which aired first on Wednesday’s Morning Edition --“NYC police used force to clear a pro-Palestinian student encampment at Columbia” -- to confirm the campus disruptors at Columbia heard on the report's background tape were in fact chanting “intifada,” support for the killing of Jews.
  23.  
  24.  
  25. A Martinez, Host: ….Across the country, the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University is gone this morning, and the campus building that protesters had seized is empty. Police forced their way into the building and arrested and zip-tied the hands of dozens of students who began their demonstration two weeks ago….
  26.  
  27.  
  28. NPR’s reporter Mann committed bias by omission, reporting only that “Hundreds of students were defiant at first, A. They were chanting anti-Israel slogans and calling for divestment from doing business with Israel.”
  29.  
  30. Calling for Israel’s destruction via “intifada” -- which Mann didn’t even acknowledge directly -- isn’t just an “anti-Israel slogan” and certainly isn’t a mere call for divestment. It calls up memories of the Second Intifada and the suicide bombers who murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
  31.  
  32.  
  33. Unidentified Protester: (Chanting) Intifada, intifada.
  34.  
  35. Unidentified Protesters: (Chanting) Intifada, intifada.
  36.  
  37. Unidentified Protester: (Chanting) Long live the intifada.
  38.  
  39. Unidentified Protesters: (Chanting) Long live the intifada.
  40.  
  41.  
  42. Still, NPR stuck up for the terrorist supporters and their (illegal) occupation of a campus building.
  43.  
  44.  
  45. Mann: At one point, A, a student appeared on top of Hamilton Hall. That's the building they occupied Monday night. That student waved a Palestinian flag. But then around 9:30 p.m. last night, a huge number of NYPD officers in riot gear charged the campus. And the student crowd fell back. They were clearly frightened. The NYPD used a massive armored vehicle to push a bridge into a window of Hamilton Hall….
  46.  
  47. Martinez: Wow, what a scene. How did students react to all this?
  48.  
  49. Mann: Yeah, with shock and dismay. I spoke to one student who was stunned by the overwhelming force. She wouldn't give her name because she fears reprisal by Columbia University.
  50.  
  51. Unidentified Student: Myself and many other students have just felt horror seeing the swiftness with which the NYPD came and deploy themselves onto our campus.
  52.  
  53.  
  54. Mann ran a bite from a Columbia spokesman who said protesters had “created a threatening environment for many, including our Jewish students and faculty.” Still, the reporter located “a lot of community support” for the agitators, including the bystander Up First found interesting.
  55.  
  56.  
  57. Mann: You know, many politicians in New York City, including bipartisan members of Congress have condemned these protests, describing them as unlawful and antisemitic. That's a charge many students reject. There's also been a lot of community support for these encampments. NPR spoke last night with Leena Widdi, who watched this police action. She's a graduate of City College.
  58.  
  59. Leena Widdi: Students are putting their lives at risk. They're putting their jobs, their diplomas at risk 'cause they know that they're fighting for something bigger, which is the right to life for Palestinians.
  60. </description>
  61.  <pubDate>May 3rd, 2024 10:02 AM</pubDate>
  62.    <dc:creator>Clay Waters</dc:creator>
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  65. <item>
  66.  <title>Meyers Claims Columbia Should've Rejected Police, Surrendered Instead</title>
  67.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/05/03/meyers-claims-columbia-shouldve-rejected-police-surrendered</link>
  68.  <description>NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers used his Thursday show to condemn Columbia for using the police to clear the illegal encampments and building occupations instead of surrendering to the campers like Brown University. At the same time, Meyers ignored what the leaders of the movement say about Zionism and continued to pretend that they are simply critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  69.  
  70. On the police sweep, Meyers ranted, “As a New Yorker, I just wanna say, I really appreciate knowing this is where my tax dollars are going, using drones to round up co-eds rather than say keeping librarians open, building affordable housing, or making sure the F Train isn't a total piece of [bleep].”
  71.  
  72. After a digression about the F Train’s lack of punctuality, Meyers got back on track by sarcastically remarking, “So, the NYPD responded with advanced technology and unprecedented force to a college protest. Columbia and New York City officials said they were left with no choice. And I mean, let's face it. It's not like they had any alternatives. Unfortunately, there's just no other way for a college to deal with a protest like this.”
  73.  
  74.  
  75.  
  76.  
  77.  
  78.  
  79.  
  80.  
  81.  
  82. He then played a clip of CNN’s Jim Sciutto reporting that Brown reached an agreement with the demonstrators to “hold a vote on divestment from Israel later this year.”
  83.  
  84. Meyers thought Columbia also should’ve caved to the lawlessness and inflammatory demands, “But, what about our drones? If there's a peaceful settlement, what are we going to do with all our drones? I know. Maybe instead of taking the F train, the drones could fly us to work.”
  85.  
  86. Later, Meyers introduced a clip of Sen. Bernie Sanders by lamenting the demonstrators’ message has been lost, “I would hope that there's maybe one thing we can all agree on. No matter how you feel about the protesters, we should spend less time arguing about college kids and more time focusing on what the protests are about. A point Senator Bernie Sanders made on Wednesday.”
  87.  
  88. In the clip, Sanders suggested, “CNN and maybe some of my colleagues here, maybe take your cameras just for a moment off of Columbia and off of UCLA. Maybe go to Gaza and take your camera and show us the emaciated children who are dying of malnutrition because of Netanyahu's policies.”
  89.  
  90. Meyers agreed, “He's right. The story is what's happening in Gaza. That's what the protests are about… As we said on this show before, the misery and devastation in Gaza is horrifying. It must end. At the same time, it's important to be clear. Anti-Semitism is vile, must be rejected in all its forms. Anti-Semitic harassment has no place anywhere, including on a college campus. And the constitutional right to protest, the actions of any government should be protected. And Jewish students should feel safe at school. All of these things can and should be true at once. To quote my favorite college professor, that just seems to me like—”
  91.  
  92. The sentence was concluded by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell at a Donald Trump rally, saying “bucket of common sense.”
  93.  
  94. Meyers wants to separate the protestors message from the ant-Semitism, but he can’t. The leaders of these movements are not simply Netanyahu critics who are a bunch of naïve peaceniks who think a ceasefire will bring peace, they are radicals who think Zionism is a form of racism and therefore Israel needs to be destroyed, which is a form of anti-Semitism.
  95.  
  96. They say this on tape and on their signs, but Meyers and Sanders chose to ignore it despite the fact that the people they are defending would consider both of them as guilty as Netanyahu for simply believing Israel should continue to exist.
  97.  
  98. Here is a transcript for the May 2-taped show:
  99.  
  100.  
  101. NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
  102.  
  103. 5/3/2024
  104.  
  105. 12:46 AM ET
  106.  
  107. SETH MEYERS: As a New Yorker, I just wanna say, I really appreciate knowing this is where my tax dollars are going, using drones to round up co-eds rather than say keeping librarians open, or building affordable housing, or making sure the F Train isn't a total piece of [bleep]. I like the delays. It gives me a chance to do the Wordle. There's even a new special F train Wordle where the words are twice as long. 
  108.  
  109. The other day my train was trapped for 50 minutes between stocks because Pizza Rat was on the tracks and all the other rats wanted a photo. There were even two tourist rats from Germany. You could tell from their lederhosen. Oh, my god, I fought -- I fought so hard to get that in and it was such a dud. 
  110.  
  111. So, the NYPD responded with advanced technology and unprecedented force to a college protest. Columbia and New York City officials said they were left with no choice. And I mean, let's face it. It's not like they had any alternatives. Unfortunately, there's just no other way for a college to deal with a protest like this.
  112.  
  113. JIM SCIUTTO: We also have news just out of Brown University, which has come to agreement with protesters there. The university says it will hold a vote on divestment from Israel later this year. That is ending investments in Israel. It's a key demand from students. Students have said that in response to that, well, they will disband the encampment by 5:00 P.M. Eastern today.
  114.  
  115. MEYERS: But, what about our drones? If there's a peaceful settlement, what are we going to do with all our drones? I know. Maybe instead of taking the F train, the drones could fly us to work
  116.  
  117. …
  118.  
  119. MEYERS: I would hope that there's maybe one thing we can all agree on. No matter how you feel about the protesters, we should spend less time arguing about college kids and more time focusing on what the protests are about. A point Senator Bernie Sanders made on Wednesday.
  120.  
  121. BERNIE SANDERS: Well I suggest to CNN and maybe some of my colleagues here, maybe take your cameras just for a moment off of Columbia and off of UCLA. Maybe go to Gaza and take your camera and show us the emaciated children who are dying of malnutrition because of Netanyahu's policies.
  122.  
  123. MEYERS: He's right. The story is what's happening in Gaza. That's what the protests are about. 
  124.  
  125. And always I will say, I love Bernie's delivery. Really helps him drive home the point he's making. He's like a grandpa reminding everyone to stop texting during dinner. [BERNIE SANDERS IMPRESSION] "Maybe take your eyes off your phones. And make eye contact at the table. In my day there was no such thing as a gif. When we were surprised, we just did this. And then if somebody missed, you would just loop it and do it again." 
  126.  
  127. [NORMAL VOICE] As we said on this show before, the misery and devastation in Gaza is horrifying. It must end. At the same time, it's important to be clear. Anti-Semitism is vile, must be rejected in all its forms. Anti-Semitic harassment has no place anywhere, including on a college campus. And the constitutional right to protest, the actions of any government should be protected. And Jewish students should feel safe at school. All of these things can and should be true at once. To quote my favorite college professor, that just seems to me like
  128.  
  129. MIKE LINDELL: Bucket of common sense. 
  130. </description>
  131.  <pubDate>May 3rd, 2024 10:00 AM</pubDate>
  132.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
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  135. <item>
  136.  <title>Column: The Public Doesn't Trust the 'Democracy-Saving' Media</title>
  137.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/05/03/column-public-doesnt-trust-democracy-saving-media</link>
  138.  <description>The national media consider themselves essential in educating the electorate, so what happens when the electorate does not consider them a trustworthy guardian of democracy?
  139.  
  140. The Associated Press and the American Press Institute just released a poll on the 2024 election and found only 14 percent of their sample expressed a great deal of confidence in election-related information they receive from national sources. By contrast, 52 percent have little or no confidence at all in the information they receive from national news organizations
  141.  
  142. About half of Americans, 53 percent, say they are extremely or very concerned that news organizations will report inaccuracies or misinformation during the election. It's 83 percent if you count the middle option of "somewhat concerned." That has to hurt, since the media elites say “misinformation” is what other people offer.
  143.  
  144. When faced with poll after poll showing the media are not trusted, their failure to accept these results underlines the persistent lack of trust.
  145.  
  146. AP media reporter David Bauder turned to American Press Institute chief Michael Bolden, who said “Years of suspicion about journalists, much of it sown by politicians, is partly responsible, he said. People are also less familiar with how journalism works.”
  147.  
  148. Let’s be uncharitable for a minute. Reporters have sown “years of suspicion about politicians.” That’s how investigating politician performance could be described. So why would investigating journalist performance draw complaints of “sowing years of suspicion”? Why can they never be evaluated for how they serve the public? Respect cannot merely be demanded. It should be earned.
  149.  
  150. Mr. Bolden is implying that politicians have swindled the public, which paints the public as – how did The Washington Post put it? – “poor, uneducated, and easy to command.” Then he lobbed another insult, that people aren’t familiar with “how journalism works.”
  151.  
  152. Maybe these elitists should consider that news consumers might want a mostly factual, somewhat objective product instead of hyperbolic editorializing that tells them what they should think. Obviously, the Republican half of the public isn’t going to support Democrat electioneering badly disguised as “news.”
  153.  
  154. Since they refuse to consider any bowing to objectivity, they have to dismiss any demand for it as ignorance of “how journalism works.”
  155.  
  156. Bolden weirdly claimed this may be because most people don’t have a journalist who “lived on their block.” Since journalists won’t meet you at the summer picnic or the Trick or Treat greetings, media outlets need to tell the public “what journalists do and how people reporting news are their friends and neighbors.”
  157.  
  158. This sounds remarkably similarly to what NPR CEO Katherine Maher recently said to The Wall Street Journal as she dismissed bias complaints as a “distraction.” Maher said, “We want to be able to speak to folks as though they were our neighbors and speak to folks as though they were our friends.”
  159.  
  160. Curiously, they don’t want to talk to Republicans like they’re neighbors and friends. Remember short-lived CNN CEO Chris Licht meeting with Republicans trying to say trust us, “we don’t bite.” That turned out to be (a) untrue and (b) fatal to his CNN career.
  161.  
  162. Brian Stelter channeled the national media arrogance under Trump after Licht was dumped: “We were advocating for the truth, advocating for reality. Others felt that was left-leaning.”
  163.  
  164. When you think reality has a liberal bias, you shouldn’t be shocked when a lot of people change the channel. </description>
  165.  <pubDate>May 3rd, 2024 5:55 AM</pubDate>
  166.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  167.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284012</guid>
  168.    </item>
  169. <item>
  170.  <title>PBS’s Amanpour Celebrates ‘Heart of the Pro-Palestinian Campus Peace Movement’</title>
  171.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2024/05/03/pbss-amanpour-celebrates-heart-pro-palestinian-campus-peace</link>
  172.  <description> On Monday’s Amanpour &amp; Co., which runs on PBS and CNN International, host Christiane Amanpour took the side of the pro-Hamas campus protesters who are spewing anti-Jewish rhetoric on “progressive” college campuses nationwide -- no surprise given her long-standing journalistic hostility toward Israel.
  173.  
  174. Against all evidence she insisted that the campus occupiers were “mostly nonviolent” idealists and that concerns had been blown “out of proportion.” Occupying private property is illegal, hence police may be called.
  175.  
  176.  
  177. Amanpour: Now, a major development sparked by this war is a growing protest and peace movement on college campuses across the United States. Though mostly nonviolent, several schools have called in local police and National Guard troops….the epicenter of all of this is Columbia University, where today, with negotiations between students and the administration at an impasse, the university called on protesters to clear their encampment or face suspension.
  178.  
  179.  
  180. Amanpour invited on a student journalist, introduced in the show opener like this: "Isabella Ramirez editor in chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator, reports from the heart of the pro-Palestinian campus peace movement." Ugh.  
  181.  
  182. To her credit, she asked her about “student-on-student verbal harassment that has been cited as very damaging and uncomfortable and frightening by some of the Jewish students.”
  183.  
  184. Ramirez replied her paper had “compiled pretty extensive reports regarding this, most particularly when in the aftermath of one of our campus rabbis telling Jewish students, hundreds of Jewish students to leave campus, to not stay because of the environment," including "particularly violent signage that was used to refer to actually Hamas...."
  185.  
  186. But Amanpour then made the college administration the aggressors for calling on the local police to dissolve the disruptive and threatening takeover of the campus. Amanpour complained Columbia's president Minouche Shafik had been "hauled before" Congress to answer to anti-semitism on campus. 
  187.  
  188.  
  189. Amanpour:  I'm just fascinated to know what you think and how you're writing about the very targeted political situation that's layered upon all of this. Because after that, Shafik, did, as we've been talking, call in the NYPD to break up the protest. Now, it's interesting that the chief of the NYPD patrol on the U.S. said the students who were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner. And your newspaper wrote in an editorial, history has made clear who stood on the wrong side then. And it's clear that this is the side you are aligning yourself with now….
  190.  
  191.  
  192. Ramirez replied with a laundry list of past protest movements at Columbia, then said her paper's editorial board was trying to warn the college president about her legacy if the wake of “the forceful removal of students from campus and also this crackdown on student protests.”
  193.  
  194.  
  195. Amanpour: And as we continue to chat, you know, we've seen on other universities, including Emory, it caused a huge ruckus, what happened on Emory, when a teacher -- a professor was essentially manhandled. Other teachers tried to help, faculty members, student, I think it was the police and the state guard or whatever they call them. It was a very rough situation over the weekend in Atlanta….
  196.  
  197.  
  198. Ramirez turned understandable concerns about anti-Semitic rhetoric and “scholarship” by Columbia professors into a free speech issue (this after years of liberal academics calling out “micro-aggressions” against campus minorities). She said, "there has been this really big question as to whether the university has done enough to kind of protect academic freedom."
  199.  
  200. Amanpour relayed the views of left-wing students and faculty, which seemingly morphed into her own view of the situation, that concerns about the campus encampments were being blown “out of proportion,” while inviting Ramirez to criticize mainstream media coverage of the protests, as if they were all too conservative.
  201.  
  202.  
  203.  
  204.  
  205.  
  206.  
  207. Amanpour: ….a lot of the faculty and some of the students have criticized the way we, the press, have covered these protests, some call it a peace movement. It's not even, you know -- it's not meant to be violence, it's meant to be nonviolent. And obviously, social media is blowing it out of proportion. You're watching it from the inside. Do you have a comment on the way the national press has been covering it?
  208.  
  209.  
  210. Ramirez demurred, and talked only about how the students can cover it because they live right there on campus.
  211.  
  212. A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
  213.  
  214.  
  215. PBS Amanpour &amp; Co.
  216.  
  217. 4/30/24
  218.  
  219. 1:48:55 a.m. (ET)
  220.  
  221. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Now, a major development sparked by this war is a growing protest and peace movement on college campuses across the United States. Though mostly nonviolent, several schools have called in local police and National Guard troops.
  222.  
  223. Today in Paris, French police entered the Sorbonne University campus to remove students occupying the main square. Now, the epicenter of all of this is Columbia University, where today, with negotiations between students and the administration at an impasse, the university called on protesters to clear their encampment or face suspension. Some of the most valuable reporting on all this comes from inside the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator. Editor in Chief Isabella Ramirez. Joins us from New York. Isabella Ramirez, welcome to the program. And, you know, I can't tell you how much we've read about what an excellent job you are doing and your, you know, student newspaper, your on campus journalist. What can you tell us is the latest right now as we sit here talking?
  224.  
  225. ISABELLA RAMIREZ, EDITOR IN CHIEF, COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR: Today is going to be a very significant day in terms of our developments. This morning, our president, Minouche Shafik, sent out an e-mail effectively saying that negotiations failed to reach an agreement. And it, for the first time, outlined very explicitly that Columbia will not divest from Israel, which is the central demand of the protesters. As well as, in that e-mail, it laid out, what, the university actually brought to the table to those negotiators, to those student negotiators and included a series of very interesting things, including offering a list of financial transparency of direct holdings of the university that is -- would be accessible to students and updating that list. It also offered to potentially invest in health and education in Gaza, as well as create an expedited process for divestment proposals. And those were all the things that essentially those students would have rejected because it did not fulfill what their central demands would be.
  226.  
  227. And one of the interesting things as well is that that e-mail did not include anything about amnesty for the students, which has also been a very big thing for the arrested and suspended students. And so, now, the university has been handling out notices to those students at the encampment at this moment warning of disciplinary action, and they have until 2:00 p.m. today to potentially clear out if not to face, again, disciplinary action.
  228.  
  229. And at the same time that this is happening, we're hearing word from the encampment, they made an announcement essentially saying that they have voted to stay.
  230.  
  231. AMANPOUR: Wow.
  232.  
  233. RAMIREZ: So, the students currently have voted to stay past 2:00 p.m. and face those suspensions. And just to add one more thing, the suspensions are actually even more severe than previous. The previous suspended students who were suspended simultaneous to the first wave of arrests that happened, you know, on April 18th, those students were allowed to stay on campus, at least in the residential spaces.
  234.  
  235. This interim suspension says they would have no access to any campus buildings, including residences, dorms, dining, et cetera, IDs completely deactivated, which would effectively evict a lot of those students or at least leave them without access to the residence halls and other important buildings. So, the consequences are now much more severe.
  236.  
  237. AMANPOUR: So, it seems, honestly, Isabella, that it's a real standoff that there seems to be, you know, little peace building or bridge building between either side and both sides, administration and students are really holding the toughest positions right now. I don't know whether you see any way forward, but what I want to ask you is, you know, you're watching this, you're talking to people on campus, you also see the ruckus that's being created outside the campus. Can you tel us what is the real picture? What -- is it dangerous, violent on campus? Is that off campus? What are you seeing as journalists from inside?
  238.  
  239. RAMIREZ: So, at the very beginning stages, there were -- there was a lot of activity in terms of protest activity, both outside of our campus on campus. To be frank, that off campus protest activity has held quite a bit. It has calmed down. That is where a lot of people were sort of citing a lot more tension in terms of when it came to, you know, certain chance or certain incidents that were arising from those outside protests. But predominantly for right now, the encampment has sort of remained the same. And there's been very few updates sort of on the day to day. That's why today is actually quite a big day. But, you know, I was just at the encampment pretty recently distributing our newspaper and really, when you walk on and you see it, it's students sort of laying on the lawn, you know, chatting, reading books, getting water, getting food. It's a really interesting environment because we are certain that there are a lot of students who have reported feeling uncomfortable, have reported feeling unsafe by the presence of the encampment. But also, when you walk onto it, there isn't like active protests necessarily occurring on the encampment itself, it's mostly just the state of occupying that space and kind of being on that space, and there being kind of a series of other activities often but very little in terms of tangible protest.
  240.  
  241. There is going to be probably more escalation we can anticipate as a result of the university's crackdown. And that's sort of why we saw, in the first place, some of those outside protests come in and also some of the students themselves start to galvanize in terms of upping their protest activity was because or was in response to the arrests and also university crackdown.
  242.  
  243. But for these past few days where everything hs been at sort of a -- the negotiations have stalled, it has been pretty, you know, regular in terms of just the students laying on the lawns and, you know, kind of doing their day-to-day activity and programming, sometimes even tuning in to class from the lawn.
  244.  
  245. AMANPOUR: Isabella, did you see, or were you able to hear the kind of, you know, student on student verbal harassment that has been cited as very damaging and uncomfortable and frightening by some of the Jewish students?
  246.  
  247. RAMIREZ: Yes, we have compiled pretty extensive reports regarding this, most particularly when in the aftermath of one of our campus rabbis telling Jewish students, hundreds of Jewish students to not -- to leave campus, to not stay because of the environment. We, in that report, were able to compile a series of incidents that had happened.
  248.  
  249. I believe on the Saturday following the arrests, much were related to off campus protest somewhere on campus that involved certain rhetoric, some of which was evocative of the Holocaust, telling students to go back to Poland, go back to Europe. And there were also other particularly violent signage that was used to refer to actually Hamas and that was one singular protest, that was a protester that was holding that sign and referring to the pro-Israel protesters behind them.
  250.  
  251. And so, we have seen those incidents, and for sure, it has come up quite a lot in the dialogue when it comes to Shafik's communication to the community and all communication we've been receiving from the administration has been very strongly condemning the particular incidents that have arisen from this.
  252.  
  253. Now, is that to say that that represents the entirety of the protesters at the encampment or all of the sort of different moving pieces? I think that is, of course, probably too wide sweeping, but there have certainly been these incidents that should draw concern for our community in half.
  254.  
  255. AMANPOUR: So, let's go back. There's so much politics as well. You just mentioned the president, Minouche Shafik, who is new, let's face it. She started at the beginning of this academic year and has been hauled, like the others, in front of the special committee in Congress. I want to play a little bit of what happened on April 17th as you guys were -- well, not you, but the campus protesters were building the encampment.
  256.  
  257. This is an exchange between Shafik and the GOP Representative Lisa McClain.
  258.  
  259. REP. LISA MCCLAIN (R-MI): Are mobs shouting, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free or, long live the intifada. Are those antisemitic comments?
  260.  
  261. MINOUCHE SHAFIK, PRESIDENT, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: When I hear those terms, I find them very upsetting. And I have heard --
  262.  
  263. MCCLAIN: That's a great answer to a question I didn't ask. Is that fall under definition of antisemitic behavior? Yes or no? Why is it so tough?
  264.  
  265. SHAFIK: Because it's a difficult issue.
  266.  
  267. MCCLAIN: Maybe I should ask your task force. Does that qualify as antisemitic behavior, those statements? Yes or no? Yes. OK. Do you agree with your task force?
  268.  
  269. SHAFIK: Yes, we agree. The question is what to do about it?
  270.  
  271. MCCLAIN: So, yes. So, the -- so, yes, you do --
  272.  
  273. AMANPOUR: So, I'm just fascinated to know what you think and how you're writing about the very targeted political situation that's layered upon all of this. Because after that, Shafik, did, as we've been talking, call in the NYPD to break up the protest.
  274.  
  275. Now, it's interesting that the chief of the NYPD patrol on the U.S. said the students who were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner. And your newspaper wrote in an editorial, history has made clear who stood on the wrong side then. And it's clear that this is the side you are aligning yourself with now. This will be your legacy.
  276.  
  277. Are you -- were you addressing the president and the administration?
  278.  
  279. RAMIREZ: Yes. So actually, our editorial board, I do not serve on, but it represents a sector of our opinion team who is very talented and has been working very hard on, you know, kind of reflecting discourse in a different way, because I oversee both the opinion and the newsroom.
  280.  
  281. But that was -- that piece in particular was addressing Shafik herself. It was attempting to say, Shafik, take a look at what your legacy looks like right now to the public, to your students, to the administration. And I think a lot of it is inspired as well by what we know from previous protests at Columbia, 1968, Vietnam, antiwar, South African apartheid, these are all huge moments in Columbia's history in which those presidents also have been looked upon for the decisions that they made at that time.
  282.  
  283. And now, when we reflect on it now, there is, of course, a lot of disdain and criticism for those decisions. So, I believe what the editorial board was really trying to get out here is, you know, really warning President Shafik as to what your legacy will entail if it means, you know, the
  284.  
  285. forceful removal of students from campus and also this crackdown on student protests. Now, of course, there are many differing opinions here, but that was the opinion reflected by our editorial board in terms of what the majority voted for.
  286.  
  287. AMANPOUR: And as we continue to chat, you know, we've seen on other universities, including Emory, it caused a huge ruckus, what happened on Emory, when a teacher -- a professor was essentially manhandled. Other teachers tried to help, faculty members, student, you know, the -- I think it was the police and the state guard or whatever they call them. It was a very rough situation over the weekend in Atlanta.
  288.  
  289. But I guess what I want to ask you, because Columbia is known around the world for, you know, it's history of student protests, but most importantly, it's very enviable and distinguished Middle East program. You have a very important Middle East studies on Arab and Palestinian studies. You have very, very important Jewish studies program. What do you think happened? Why can't people talk to each other?
  290.  
  291. RAMIREZ: I think part of it is that there is -- encircling all of this, encircling the protest activity is there's a big conversation about academic freedom at Columbia and sort of what are the limits of that, but as well as has the university done enough to protect those -- the academic freedom of the professors on our campus.
  292.  
  293. And we saw that as well in the congressional hearing. Congress went very, very hard on Columbia for, naming multiple faculty members by name, most of whom came from the department regarding statements that they had made, scholarship, and other things that they have taught in their classrooms as, of course, labeling them antisemitic and unsafe.
  294.  
  295. And so, there has been this really big question as to whether the university has done enough to kind of protect academic freedom in the first place to allow that discourse to even happen. And so, I think, you know, in terms of agree, like our tradition here at Columbia of both our Middle Eastern Studies Department, but also our immense connections too, we have the Jewish Theological Seminary, we have a -- controversial, but we have a relationship through a program with Tel Aviv University.
  296.  
  297. We have these very deep-seated ties to this issue in particular Edward Said, many scholars who are considered foundational in Israeli and Palestinian issues. And so, a big question here has, though, been, what is academic freedom, what is the university's role in protecting it, and has Columbia, in this time frame, under political pressures, under student pressures, has it done enough to protect that and allow that discourse to occur on its campus?
  298.  
  299. AMANPOUR: And briefly, we got just a little bit left. You know, a lot of the faculty and some of the students have criticized the way we, the press, have covered these protests, some call it a peace movement. It's not even, you know -- it's not meant to be violence, it's meant to be nonviolent. And obviously, social media is blowing it out of proportion. You're watching it from the inside. Do you have a comment on the way the national press has been covering it?
  300. </description>
  301.  <pubDate>May 3rd, 2024 5:04 AM</pubDate>
  302.    <dc:creator>Clay Waters</dc:creator>
  303.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283980</guid>
  304.    </item>
  305. <item>
  306.  <title>REGIME MEDIA: ABC Keeps Pushing “Bloodbath Hoax’ In Trump Smear</title>
  307.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/05/03/regime-media-abc-keeps-pushing-bloodbath-hoax-trump-smear</link>
  308.  <description>ABC World News Tonight, far and away the most fervent propagator of Biden talking points, farted out an embarrassment of a report that served little purpose other than to attempt to rekindle January 6th fearmongering and rehash the broadly-debunked “Bloodbath Hoax”.
  309.  
  310. Watch the aforementioned report in its entirety, as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 (click “expand” to view full transcript):
  311.  
  312.  
  313.  
  314.  
  315.  
  316.  
  317. DAVID MUIR: Meantime, in the race for The White House, Donald Trump refusing to commit now to accepting the results of the upcoming November election, and President Biden tonight saying, "Take Donald Trump at his word" on this. Here's Mary Bruce.
  318.  
  319. MARY BRUCE: Tonight, the Biden campaign is calling Donald Trump “a danger to the Constitution and a threat to our democracy”, after the former president refused to say he would accept the results of the election. Trump telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “If everything's honest, I'd gladly accept the results… If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”
  320.  
  321. BRUCE: Tonight, President Biden saying, take Trump at his word. Our Karen Travers asking him:
  322.  
  323. KAREN TRAVERS: Are you worried that Trump says he won't accept the election results?
  324.  
  325. BIDEN: Listen to what he says!
  326.  
  327. BRUCE: Earlier this week, when Trump was asked by Time magazine if he's concerned about violence if he doesn't win, he said, "If we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election." 
  328.  
  329. Biden has been ramping up his warnings.
  330.  
  331. BIDEN: He promises quote,” a bloodbath”, if he loses. This guy denies January 6th. Listen. Listen to what he says. Because you know he means it.
  332.  
  333. BRUCE: The president urging voters to take this seriously, as some of Trump's language echoes what he said in the runup to the January 6th attack on the Capitol. The Biden campaign concerned that Trump supporters may be listening closely. David.
  334.  
  335. MUIR: Mary Bruce, live at The White House tonight. Mary, thank you.
  336.  
  337.  
  338. Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce rehashes the usual January 6th hysteria, by citing portions of an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wherein Trump hedges when asked if he’d accept the results of the election should he lose. Bruce takes the opportunity to tie this to Trump’s Time  interview, and feed it to Biden as an election-denial burger. 
  339.  
  340. It is at this point that Bruce allows Biden’s utterance of the Bloodbath Hoax to go unchallenged and uncorrected. As we said when ABC World News Tonight, with Bruce behind the anchor desk, first furthered the Bloodbath Hoax:
  341.  
  342.  
  343. …to accept the idea that people who are the elite in the industry of communicating with words are suddenly unable to comprehend plain English requires multiple significant suspensions of disbelief. That’s not to say that some of these elites are not intellectually deficient. But not to this extent. Which leaves willful deception as the only likely reason why reporters, correspondents and anchors would, in near unanimity continue to promote Trump’s assessment of damage to the American automotive industry under a second Biden term as both a violent threat and a January 6th-adjacent attack against democracy.
  344.  
  345.  
  346. Bruce closes out tonight’s report by contemptibly suggesting, without evidence, that Trump’s rhetoric echoes what he said in the runup to January 6th and echoing the Biden campaign’s talking point that “Trump supporters may be listening closely”. 
  347.  
  348. The title “Regime Media” is well-earned.
  349.  
  350.  </description>
  351.  <pubDate>May 3rd, 2024 12:24 AM</pubDate>
  352.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  353.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284011</guid>
  354.    </item>
  355. <item>
  356.  <title>CBS’s Nancy Cordes Frets Campus Protests Might Hurt Biden</title>
  357.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/05/02/cbss-nancy-cordes-frets-campus-protests-might-hurt-biden</link>
  358.  <description>CBS Senior White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes went into full “Protect the Precious” mode as she covered the political fallout from the radical and often violent protests at various elite college campuses across the nation.
  359.  
  360. Watch as Cordes laments that “the unrest is now threatening to become an election issue” affecting President Biden with the youth vote:
  361.  
  362.  
  363.  
  364.  
  365.  
  366.  
  367. PROTESTERS: Palestine will be free!
  368.  
  369. NANCY CORDES: Like many protesters, President Biden has expressed concern about the plight of Palestinian civilians. More than 34,000 killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. But when asked today if he would change his policies towards Israel, as the protesters have been demanding, Biden said, simply:
  370.  
  371. JOE BIDEN: No.
  372.  
  373. CORDES: The unrest is now threatening to become an election issue. Young people are a key Democratic voting bloc.
  374.  
  375. SELINA AL-SHIHABI: Biden needs to listen to what the students are calling for, which is an end to a genocide funded by the United States. So, first things first, stop funding Israel.
  376.  
  377.  
  378. It is a small wonder that Cordes didn’t utter “Michigan” at some point in the report. You know she must’ve thought it. This item serves as a reminder that there is only one true, pure victim of whatever the calamity of the day might be- and that is the electoral prospects of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. 
  379.  
  380. The report plays more like a mashup of two different reports: first, a recap of the happenings at the different universities across the nation, with their varying degrees of protest and crackdown. On the other hand, there is the standard D.C. wrapup. 
  381.  
  382. In addition to the lamentation over the youth vote, the report unquestioningly cites Hamas Health casualty figures, and attempts to compensate for Biden’s perceived misfortunes by taking a “without evidence” shot at former President Donald Trump, who at a rally suggested that there were paid foreign agitators:
  383.  
  384.  
  385. Laying down this marker for when it is discovered that at least ONE (1) foreign-born student and/or outside agitator was paid by some radical oligarch-funded organization. pic.twitter.com/kR0GYRjIU0
  386. — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 3, 2024
  387. Cordes’ shootdown of Trump’s statement so early into the protest fallout is arrogant to the point of recklessness. All it takes is ONE paid foreign student/agitator in order to make Cordes look like a total fool.
  388.  
  389. The report closes with a casual “by the way” observation- that the Biden administration is thinking about bringing in some Gazan refugees to be reunited with family stateside. Again, Cordes managed to bite her tongue and not utter “Michigan”.
  390.  
  391. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on the CBS Evening News on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024:
  392.  
  393.  
  394. JAMES BROWN: And we begin tonight with President Biden's sharp criticism today of the violence that has broken out in protest on America's college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. In recent weeks, nearly 2,000 people have been detained or arrested at dozens of schools. There were more protests today at Portland State, George Washington University, the University of Pennsylvania, and NYU. Speaking at the White House today, President Biden made his most extensive comments to date on the protests, condemning anti-semitic slurs, vandalism, trespassing, and major disruptions to classes and graduations at some universities. New York City Mayor Eric Adams says nearly half of those arrested earlier this week at Columbia University and nearby City College were not students at those schools. Adams claims outside agitators are radicalizing students. CBS's Nancy Cordes leads off our coverage tonight from The White House.
  395.  
  396. NANCY CORDES: White House officials say it was the sheer number of violent encounters on college campuses over the past two days that prompted President Biden to speak out.
  397.  
  398. JOE BIDEN: There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.
  399.  
  400. CORDES: His comments came in the wake of nearly 2,000 arrests. More than 30 colleges and universities.
  401.  
  402. POLICE: Start clearing the barricade.
  403.  
  404. CORDES: Just today, protesters were ejected from a library at Portland State University that they had occupied for three days. Inside, police say they found ball bearings, paint balloons, spray bottles of ink, and DIY armor.
  405.  
  406. BIDEN: Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest.
  407.  
  408. PROTESTERS: Palestine will be free!
  409.  
  410. CORDES: Like many protesters, President Biden has expressed concern about the plight of Palestinian civilians. More than 34,000 killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. But when asked today if he would change his policies towards Israel, as the protesters have been demanding, Biden said, simply:
  411.  
  412. BIDEN: No.
  413.  
  414. CORDES: The unrest is now threatening to become an election issue. Young people are a key Democratic voting bloc.
  415.  
  416. SELINA AL-SHIHABI: Biden needs to listen to what the students are calling for, which is an end to a genocide funded by the United States. So, first things first, stop funding Israel.
  417.  
  418. CORDES: In battleground Wisconsin, Donald Trump argued Biden should have spoken out sooner.
  419.  
  420. DONALD TRUMP: There’s a big fever in our country and he’s not talking.
  421.  
  422. CORDES: But Trump also made this unfounded claim about campus demonstrators.
  423.  
  424. TRUMP: They do come from other countries, and they are paid. 
  425.  
  426. CORDES: Some Republicans have urged President Biden to send in the National Guard to quell campus protests, but he said no to that today. CBS News was first to report that the Biden administration is now considering bringing some Palestinians from war-torn Gaza to the U.S. as refugees. JB.
  427.  
  428. BROWN: Nancy, thank you very much.
  429.  
  430.  
  431.  </description>
  432.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 11:10 PM</pubDate>
  433.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  434.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284010</guid>
  435.    </item>
  436. <item>
  437.  <title>Why Biden’s Just Wrong: NO ONE ‘Knows How to Make Government Work.’</title>
  438.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/john-stossel/2024/05/02/why-bidens-just-wrong-no-one-knows-how-make-government-work</link>
  439.  <description>President Joe Biden says, “I know how to make government work!”
  440.  
  441. You’d think he’d know. He’s worked in government for 51 years.
  442.  
  443. But the truth is, no one can make government work.
  444.  
  445. Biden hasn’t.
  446.  
  447. Look at the chaos at the border, our military’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the rising cost of living, our unsustainable record-high debt ...
  448.  
  449. In my new video, economist Ed Stringham argues that no government can ever work well, because “even the best person can’t implement change. ... The massive bureaucracy gets bigger and slower.”
  450.  
  451. I learned that as a consumer reporter watching bureaucrats regulate business. Their rules usually made life worse for consumers.
  452.  
  453. Yet politicians want government to do more!
  454.  
  455. Remember the unveiling of Obamacare’s website? Millions tried to sign up. The first day, only six got it to work.
  456.  
  457. Vice President Joe Biden made excuses: “Neither (Obama) and I are technology geeks.”
  458.  
  459. Stringham points out, “If they can’t design a basic simple website, how are they going to manage half the economy?”
  460.  
  461. While bureaucrats struggled with the Obamacare site, the private sector successfully created Uber and Lyft, platforms like iCloud, apps like Waze, smartwatches, etc.
  462.  
  463. The private sector creates things that work because it has to. If businesses don’t serve customers well, they go out of business.
  464.  
  465. But government is a monopoly. It never goes out of business. With no competition, there’s less pressure to improve.
  466.  
  467. Often good people join government. Some work as hard as workers in the private sector.
  468.  
  469. But not for long. Because the bureaucracy’s incentives kill initiative.
  470.  
  471. If a government worker works hard, he might get a small raise. But he sits near others who earn the same pay and, thanks to archaic civil service rules, are unlikely to get fired even if they’re late, lazy or stupid.
  472.  
  473. Over time, that’s demoralizing. Eventually government workers conclude, “Why try?”
  474.  
  475. In the private sector, workers must strive to make things better. If they don’t, competitors will, and you might lose your job.
  476.  
  477. Governments never go out of business.
  478.  
  479. “Companies can only stay in business if they always keep their customer happy,” Stringham points out. “Competition pushes us to be better. Government has no competition.”
  480.  
  481. I push back.
  482.  
  483. “Politicians say, ‘Voters can vote us out.’”
  484.  
  485. “With a free market,” Stringham replies, “The consumer votes every single day with the dollar. Under politics, we have to wait four years.”
  486.  
  487. It’s another reason why, over time, government never works as well as the private sector.
  488.  
  489. Year after year, the Pentagon fails audits.
  490.  
  491. If a private company repeatedly does that, they get shut down. But government never gets shut down.
  492.  
  493. A Pentagon spokeswoman makes excuses: “We’re working on improving our process. We certainly are learning each time.”
  494.  
  495. They don’t learn much. They still fail audits.
  496.  
  497. “It’s like we’re living in Groundhog Day,” Stringham jokes.
  498.  
  499. When Covid hit, politicians handed out almost $2 trillion in “rescue” funds. The Government Accountability Office says more than $100 billion were stolen.
  500.  
  501. “One woman bought a Bentley,” laughs Stringham. “A father and son bought a luxury home.”
  502.  
  503. At least Biden noticed the fraud. He announced, “We’re going to make you pay back what you stole!
  504.  
  505. No. They will not. Biden’s Fraud Enforcement Task Force has recovered only 1% of what was stolen.
  506.  
  507. Even without fraud, government makes money vanish. I’ve reported on my town’s $2 million toilet in a park. When I confronted the parks commissioner, he said, “$2 million was a bargain! Today it would cost $3 million.”
  508.  
  509. That’s government work.
  510.  
  511. More recently, Biden proudly announced that government would create “500,000 (EV) charging stations.”
  512.  
  513. After two years, they’ve built ... seven. Not 7,000. Just seven.
  514.  
  515. Over the same time, greedy, profit-seeking Amazon built 17,000.
  516.  
  517. “Privatize!” says Stringham. “Whenever we think something’s important, question whether government should do it.”
  518.  
  519. In Britain, government-owned Jaguar lost money year after year. Only when Britain sold the company to private investors did Jaguar start turning a profit selling cars people actually like.
  520.  
  521. When Sweden sold Absolut Vodka, the company increased its profits sixfold.
  522.  
  523. It’s ridiculous for Biden to say, “I know how to make government work.”
  524.  
  525. No one does.
  526.  
  527. Next week, this column takes on Donald Trump’s promise: “We’ll drain the Washington swamp!”</description>
  528.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 5:11 PM</pubDate>
  529.    <dc:creator>John Stossel</dc:creator>
  530.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284002</guid>
  531.    </item>
  532. <item>
  533.  <title>As Police Bust Pro-Hamas UCLA Camp, CBS Hints Students Will Be Killed</title>
  534.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/05/02/police-bust-pro-hamas-ucla-camp-cbs-hints-students-will-be</link>
  535.  <description> Thursday’s CBS Mornings was live on the scene as California Highway Patrol was busting the anti-Semitic/pro-Hamas encampment at UCLA. But from the get-go, the network seemed intent on hinting that at any moment police would turn their guns on the students and UCLA would become the next Kent State massacre.
  536.  
  537. Before they even started the show, their opening tease (teed up by co-anchor Nate Burleson) highlighted a student who claimed, without evidence, that the university wanted them dead:
  538.  
  539.  
  540. BURLESON: Breaking overnight, police swarm demonstrators at UCLA a day after their encampment was attacked by counter-protesters.
  541.  
  542. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER: The aggression that we faced shows that the university has no choice to just stand by and wait for us to get killed by Zionist aggressors.
  543.  
  544.  
  545. Seemingly ill-prepared to go to their live shots of correspondent Carter Evans, who at the scene, the network sloppily had their in-studio fill-in anchors try to report on what they were seeing live. Vladimir Duthiers noted: “Police fired what appear to be nonlethal rounds at some of the protesters. That was the pop, pop, pop that you just heard there.”
  546.  
  547. His tone turned to what seemed like panic he seemed to suggest the highway patrol had switched to real guns. “As again, this is live pictures coming into the newsroom right now where you see looks like hundreds of police officers in full riot gear now holding up weapons at those protesters!” he exclaimed.
  548.  
  549.  
  550.  
  551.  
  552.  
  553.  
  554.  
  555.  
  556.  
  557. But they didn’t.
  558.  
  559. Following the video portion of Evans’ report, co-anchors Burleson, Duthiers, and Jericka Duncan bloviated about the profound nature of what they were witnessing. “Again, Americans haven't seen scenes like this since the 1960s when college campuses erupted over protests in Vietnam. And now we're seeing this again play out on college campuses all across the country,” Duthiers suggested, inching toward a Kent State parallel.
  560.  
  561. It was Duncan who hinted the strongest that they could see students get killed soon:
  562.  
  563.  
  564. DUTHIERS: They seem to be inching inch by inch to try to move these protesters off, but it's going to be very, very difficult. And of course the fear is that somebody gets hurts.
  565.  
  566. BURLESON: Yeah. No doubt about it.
  567.  
  568. DUNCAN: Or even worse.
  569.  
  570.  
  571. Burleson built off of Duncan by suggesting it was a real fear among the pro-Hamas mob. “And when you look at the protesters, some are speaking and saying that ‘we are protesting peacefully, and we are looking for support from the police.’ And then others are saying that the police are not offering that, they are actually doing the opposite,” he said.
  572.  
  573. Duthiers did note that there was also a danger to officers from “outside agitators” and concluded with: “So, it becomes really, really difficult and, of course, the danger, as you see this police officer trying to tear down a barricade that presumably protesters put up, the danger is that somebody gets hurt.”
  574.  
  575. Over 130 people were reportedly arrested and no one was seriously injured, let alone killed.
  576.  
  577. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
  578.  
  579.  
  580. CBS Mornings
  581. May 2, 2024
  582. 7:00:22 a.m. Eastern [Opening tease]
  583.  
  584. (…)
  585.  
  586. NATE BURLESON: Breaking overnight, police swarm demonstrators at UCLA a day after their encampment was attacked by counter-protesters.
  587.  
  588. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER: The aggression that we faced shows that the university has no choice to just stand by and wait for us to get killed by Zionist aggressors.
  589.  
  590. (…)
  591.  
  592. 7:02:16 a.m. Eastern
  593.  
  594. [Live video of the chaos at UCLA without voiceovers]
  595.  
  596. VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Again, we just want to reiterate, this just happened minutes ago. Police fired what appear to be nonlethal rounds at some of the protesters. That was the pop, pop, pop that you just heard there. Those folks were sheltering behind a barricade.
  597.  
  598. As again, this is live pictures coming into the newsroom right now where you see looks like hundreds of police officers in full riot gear now holding up weapons at those protesters!
  599.  
  600. (…)
  601.  
  602. 7:06:19 a.m. Eastern
  603.  
  604. DUTHIERS: These pictures are remarkable coming into us right now, into the newsroom. When you see what looks like dozens if not perhaps hundreds of police officers in full riot gear, and they're trying to get in to clear this encampment. Again, Americans haven't seen scenes like this since the 1960s when college campuses erupted over protests in Vietnam. And now we're seeing this again play out on college campuses all across the country.
  605.  
  606. It looks like now the police are actually moving toward those barricades that protesters have set up. You can see those pieces of plywood that they -- protesters are using to try and force the police back. They seem to be inching inch by inch to try to move these protesters off, but it's going to be very, very difficult. And of course the fear is that somebody gets hurts.
  607.  
  608. BURLESON: Yeah. No doubt about it.
  609.  
  610. JERICKA DUNCAN: Or even worse.
  611.  
  612. BURLESON: And when you look at the protesters, some are speaking and saying that “we are protesting peacefully, and we are looking for support from the police.” And then others are saying that the police are not offering that, they are actually doing the opposite.
  613.  
  614. DUTHIERS: The difficulty, of course, is that when you hear police officials – and we heard that yesterday from New York City Mayor Adams – that there are outside agitators who are taking part in some of these demonstrations, it's difficult for police to know who the outside agitators are. Look -- it's dark, there are lights, there are teargas --
  615.  
  616. BURLESON: Most people are covered.
  617.  
  618. DUTHIERS: Being deployed – Exactly. People have their faces covered. So, it becomes really, really difficult and, of course, the danger, as you see this police officer trying to tear down a barricade that a presumably protesters put up, the danger is that somebody gets hurt.
  619.  
  620. (…)
  621. </description>
  622.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 4:14 PM</pubDate>
  623.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  624.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284009</guid>
  625.    </item>
  626. <item>
  627.  <title>NYT's Frank Bruni Blames Trump, Mike Johnson for Escalation at Columbia</title>
  628.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2024/05/02/nyts-frank-bruni-blames-trump-mike-johnson-escalation-columbia</link>
  629.  <description> Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's Erin Burnett OutFront, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni tried to blame Republicans Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson for the escalation by far-left anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University that included taking over and occupying an academic building.
  630.  
  631. Host Erin Burnett recalled that other schools had had more success in negotiating the demands of protesters, and then posed: "What do you think is different here about Columbia? There has been no ability to tamp it down."
  632.  
  633. Bruni quickly pointed a finger at Speaker Johnson recently visiting Columbia University and calling for more to be done to stop Jewish students from being harassed:
  634.  
  635.  
  636.  
  637.  
  638. BRUNI: Yeah, I mean, part of it is, everything that happens in New York City is on steroids, right?.. I also think that various political actors -- and this is indicative of our grievance culture. Various political actors have decided to choose this particular circumstance to come in and choose their sides and make their statements, and I think that has accelerated and amplified things. Mike Johnson, for example -- the Speaker of the House -- a week ago, I was writing about how much I admired the fact that he made common cause with Democrats -- changed his mind about Ukraine aid, and then, the next day or the day beyond that, he goes up to New York -- he didn't need to be here -- and he says, "Maybe we should bring in the National Guard."
  639.  
  640.  
  641. So a politician calling for less hate is "accelerating and amplifying" the problem, not the protesters.
  642.  
  643. After Burnett recalled that she had been there during Speaker Johnson's visit and was surprised about the unhappy students surrounding him, Bruni added:
  644.  
  645.  
  646. BRUNI: But did he need to do that? You know, so many of the voices that have joined the situation and have shouted about it -- because that's what we do these days -- we shout, we don't talk. Have they been there for -- to score political points and their own purposes? Or have they come there really to come and solve this? I think this has been a sort of -- this particular situation has attracted political actors scoring points in a way that the situation on some of those other campuses have not.
  647.  
  648.  
  649. Once again, what are the protesters doing there if not to "score political points"? 
  650.  
  651. Burnett -- who last week pressed Speaker Johnson from the left on the issue of him criticizing anti-Israel protesters -- voiced agreement with her left-leaning guest:
  652.  
  653.  
  654. BURNETT: Yeah, right. Maybe somehow maybe because it's Columbia. He came, he brought -- he brought four -- three or four other representatives with him, and I, you know, I was standing next to him. I was -- the students couldn't fully hear him, and that was a good thing because if they had heard what they were saying -- in one case, saying, "You all should be ashamed" -- there would have been a true outcry. The intention of them appearing was for the press conference part, not to actually talk to the students.
  655.  
  656.  
  657. Again, as if the protesters aren't there for the cameras.
  658.  
  659. A bit later, after the CNN host recalled that seeing broken windows, "I'm thinking of that indelible image of the Capitol, far-right protesters on January 6. Here we are on April 30, people who would identify themselves as far-left protesters doing the same thing." Bruni suggested that President Trump had culpability because he has defended January 6 rioters:
  660.  
  661.  
  662. BRUNI: Well, you do have to ask if there's a through line from one to the other. I mean, on January 6, we had a President still at the time -- now a former President who has romanticized what's happened there -- who has sent the message that if you really believe in something and if you're fighting for it, you do the most provocative, disruptive, confrontational thing possible. That's what the rioters on January 6 did. That's what these students and their non-student allies, whatever you want to call them, were doing here. There's this -- it's all the same sort of ethos -- the same sort of approach.
  663.  
  664.  
  665. It was not mentioned that left-wing anti-police protesters showed plenty of ability to cause damage (more than a billion dollars) during the summer of 2020 before the Capitol Hill riots of 2021 had even happened.
  666.  
  667. Transcript follows:
  668.  
  669.  
  670. CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront
  671.  
  672. April 30, 2024
  673.  
  674. 7:43 a.m. Eastern
  675.  
  676. ERIN BURNETT: So, Frank, I'm just trying to understand -- and I know every situation because there's different individuals involved, right -- but Yale and Brown today succeeded -- two different ways but negotiating so that the encampments were dismantled and things appear to be going back to normal. Some of the students, you know, in the case of one of the universities -- okay, look at the police are walking here as we're talking so we're seeing where they're going. As they do that, Frank, what do you think is different here about Columbia? There has been no ability to tamp it down.
  677.  
  678. FRANK BRUNI, NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah, I mean, part of it is, everything that happens in New York City is on steroids right now. We don't know exactly who's in that building and what effect that has on it. I also think that various political actors -- and this is indicative of our grievance culture. Various political actors have decided to choose this particular circumstance to come in and choose their sides and make their statements, and I think that has accelerated and amplified things. Mike Johnson, for example -- the Speaker of the House -- a week ago, I was writing about how much I admired the fact that he made common cause with Democrats -- changed his mind about Ukraine aid, and then, the next day or the day beyond that, he goes up to New York -- he didn't need to be here -- and he says, "Maybe we should bring in the National Guard." We have two --
  679.  
  680. BURNETT: I was there, by the way, on the steps at Columbia when he was there, and he came out, and he said and did what he intended to do.
  681.  
  682. BRUNI: Right.
  683.  
  684. BURNETT: But he was clearly taken aback and surprised by how many students were there. And at that point -- there were only a few hundred -- but they gathered -- and they were not happy, which is not what he was expecting.
  685.  
  686. BRUNI: But did he need to do that? You know, so many of the voices that have joined the situation and have shouted about it -- because that's what we do these days -- we shout, we don't talk. Have they been there for -- to score political points and their own purposes? Or have they come there really to come and solve this? I think this has been a sort of -- this particular situation has attracted political actors scoring points in a way that the situation on some of those other campuses have not.
  687.  
  688. BURNETT: Yeah, right. Maybe somehow maybe because it's Columbia. He came, he brought -- he brought four -- three or four other representatives with him, and I, you know, I was standing next to him. I was -- the students couldn't fully hear him, and that was a good thing because if they had heard what they were saying -- in one case, saying, "You all should be ashamed" -- there would have been a true outcry. The intention of them appearing was for the press conference part, not to actually talk to the students.
  689.  
  690. BRUNI: They came here because New York City is the media capital. Where are you and I sitting right now? We're sitting in a studio in New York City. They came here because more cameras are here. More media companies are here than in any other city.
  691.  
  692. (...)
  693.  
  694. BURNETT: These kids were offered -- the ones that are students, you know, that they would be able to not be expelled, you know, that if they would just to sign papers to back off today. Which at Yale, Brown -- this seemed to work to deescalate -- did not happen in this case. But when we look at the images of where -- I don't know how many people are in there and how many of them are students, but right now, in Hamilton Hall, in Columbia, right near these images that you're looking at where when the police go in that is where we anticipate this confrontation will happen -- we saw the students occupy it and whoever else was with them, broken windows. And the first thing when you see that broken window, I'm thinking of that indelible image of the Capitol, far-right protesters on January 6. Here we are on April 30, people who would identify themselves as far-left protesters doing the same thing.
  695.  
  696. BRUNI: Well, you do have to ask if there's a through line from one to the other. I mean, on January 6, we had a President still at the time -- now a former President who has romanticized what's happened there -- who has sent the message that if you really believe in something and if you're fighting for it, you do the most provocative, disruptive, confrontational thing possible. That's what the rioters on January 6 did. That's what these students and their non-student allies, whatever you want to call them, were doing here. There's this -- it's all the same sort of ethos -- the same sort of approach.
  697. </description>
  698.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 3:34 PM</pubDate>
  699.    <dc:creator>Brad Wilmouth</dc:creator>
  700.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283987</guid>
  701.    </item>
  702. <item>
  703.  <title>CBS Lionizes Climate Losers Blocking Traffic, Throwing Paint, Interrupting Conservative Gala</title>
  704.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/05/02/cbs-lionizes-climate-losers-blocking-traffic-throwing-paint</link>
  705.  <description>Like being able to visit museums without climate freaks throwing soup on world-renowned paintings? Looking to enjoy a night out at a gala? Need a peaceful commute without anyone blocking the road?
  706.  
  707. If the answer to any of these questions is no, CBS Mornings all but said no way, Jose. On Thursday, they ran a lengthy puff piece fawning over Climate Defiance and even followed them as they interrupted the March 6 gala for our friends at American Moment.
  708.  
  709.  
  710.  
  711.  
  712.  
  713.  
  714.  
  715.  
  716.  
  717. Co-host Nate Burleson incredibly wove in the climate freaks with the live scenes from UCLA as “police are clashing with protesters against the war in Gaza”.
  718.  
  719. “College campuses aren’t the only places where protesters are making their voices heard. This morning in our Climate Watch series, we’re focusing on climate activists who are taking direct action to make their point. Last week one group blockaded the entrance to the global headquarters of CitiGroup in Manhattan. They demanded the banking giant stop funding fossil fuel interests,” boasted fill-in co-host Jericka Duncan.
  720.  
  721. She added “[s]enior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy [took] a closer look at one climate group that says it doesn’t need to be liked to be effective.”
  722.  
  723. The chyron was unsurprisingly stupid: “Climate Watch; Protests for the Planet; A Look at What’s Driving Climate Activists to Get Aggressive”.
  724.  
  725. With that stacked deck, Tracy gave unassuming and seemingly neutral (i.e. pro-thuggery) open: “Blocking traffic, throwing red powder on a case housing the U.S. Constitution, and dousing a global-covered Van Gogh with soup, climate protesters are not just marching in the streets. They’re finding new and more aggressive ways to demand climate action.”
  726.  
  727. Tracy was then shown following around Climate Defiance in their preparation, execution, and aftermath of their storming of the American Moment gala. Tracy and CBS cameras even palled around with one of their leaders as they scouted out the hotel a day beforehand.
  728.  
  729. Of course, Tracy denied our friends the full free advertising by refusing to name them (click “expand”):
  730.  
  731.  
  732. MAXWELL DOWNING: We can still cause a little bit of a scene. Cause some chaos.
  733.  
  734. TRACY: On a recent Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. —
  735.  
  736. DOWNING: I know exactly the route that we can go.
  737.  
  738. TRACY: — 21-year-old Maxwell Downing shared his plan to cause a scene at this nearby hotel. [TO DOWNING] What exactly are you guys doing tonight?
  739.  
  740. DOWNING: We’re going to a fancy, schamncy gala that J.D. Vance — Republican senator from Ohio — is going to be speaking at. J.D. Vance is one of the top 20 recipients of oil and gas money in Congress.
  741.  
  742. TRACY: Downing cased the hotel the day before they found the best escape routes.
  743.  
  744. DOWNING [TO FELLOW THUGS]: Who does not have $50 in cash?
  745.  
  746. TRACY: So, after making sure that everyone had money in case they got arrested —
  747.  
  748. DOWNING [at American Moment gala]: J.D. Vance is a climate supervillain!
  749.  
  750. TRACY: — these climate protesters stormed the ballroom —
  751.  
  752. DOWNING: Come out, J.D., face us.
  753.  
  754. CLIMATE DEFIANCE PROTESTER: He’s a climate criminal.
  755.  
  756. TRACY: — interrupting the event until security finally threw them out.
  757.  
  758. DOWNING: Face us! Off fossil fuels!
  759.  
  760. AMERICAN MOMENT SECURITY GUARDS: Get out. Get out.
  761.  
  762. DOWNING: Immediately, security guards hands around the neck, which is not usual.
  763.  
  764.  
  765. Nearly a minute and a half into the five-minute-and-37-second block, Tracy finally identified the group as Climate Defiance, taking them at their word that they don’t “engage in vandalism or violence” and have “become notorious for surprise confrontations with oil executives...and politicians on both sides of the aisle.”
  766.  
  767. Tracy even served at the group’s unofficial spokesman by having CBS ask Senator J.D. Vance “for his reaction to the disruption” at the gala he was speaking at. Of course, Vance’s team “did not respond”.
  768.  
  769. One could presume this question to Climate Defense executive director Michael Greenberg was meant to be adversarial: “When you burst into a room and you call somebody like Senator Manchin a sick f-word, what is the outcome you’re hoping to achieve?”
  770.  
  771. Greenberg was unapologetic in explaining they “don’t necessarily expect to move Manchin or whatnot” but instead “make climate change a top issue in American politics”....via intimidation.
  772.  
  773. “He says their protests are designed to go viral on social media, attracting new members to their cause, and raising awareness of climate change as an existential issue,” Tracy added.
  774.  
  775. Tracy’s other question came with a drive-by-ish tone: “Do you worry about turning people off, that they see you as more annoying or more of a threat than actually helping the cause you say you’re trying to help?”
  776.  
  777. The only mild, official pushback from Dana Fisher, an American University professor who penned “a new book about climate activism” (Click “expand”):
  778.  
  779.  
  780. GREENBERG: We’re trying to shake the public awake.
  781.  
  782. TRACY [TO GREENBERG]: Do you worry about turning people off, that they see you as more annoying or more of a threat than actually helping the cause you say you’re trying to help?
  783.  
  784. GREENBERG: Yeah, we’re definitely an acquired taste. Not everybody loves us. You don’t need to be popular to be effective.
  785.  
  786. FISHER: And their goal is media attention, plain and simple. [TO STUDENTS] When you guys look at the general population —
  787.  
  788. TRACY: Dana Fisher is a professor at American University and author of a new book about climate activism.
  789.  
  790. DOWNING: He is a criminal!
  791.  
  792. TRACY: She calls these kinds of activists “shockers,” not unlike some of the AIDS activists of the 1980s who desperately tried to get people’s attention. [TO FISHER] How do we know if this is actually effective?
  793.  
  794. FISHER: I think it’s going to be a hindsight thing. I mean, I do not think that the whole movement should shift toward these kinds of actions because I think it will be a detriment to the movement itself, but it is playing a role in helping to keep the conversation going.
  795.  
  796.  
  797. The CBS correspondent closed by bragging that “they have had some success” in securing “a meeting with John Podesta, the White House’s chief climate adviser” and were “part of the pressure campaign that recently led President Biden to pause the expansion of liquefied natural gas exports.”
  798.  
  799. Duthiers gushed about how “this is such a great piece” with “a lot to digest,” adding “you can understand that they want cameras there...because it does cause people to pay attention” since “politicians...have enacted or have at least put plans into place to address climate issues.”
  800.  
  801. Duncan also voiced her support: “But only time really will tell in terms of what action is actually taken, what policies are actually passed as a result of bringing attention to something that I think everyone, at this point recognizes, is a problem.”
  802.  
  803. “We love shock value. But we’ll see if this is counterproductive or not in the future,” Burleson said.
  804.  
  805. Exit question: How would liberal journalists feel if protesters stormed and occupied their studios, or say, blocked roads that made them late for family emergencies?
  806.  
  807. To see the relevant CBS transcript from May 2, click here.</description>
  808.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 3:22 PM</pubDate>
  809.    <dc:creator>Curtis Houck</dc:creator>
  810.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284007</guid>
  811.    </item>
  812. <item>
  813.  <title>Fla. Heartbeat Act Goes Into Effect: Pro-Lifers Rejoice, Pro-Aborts Cry</title>
  814.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/05/02/fla-heartbeat-act-goes-effect-pro-lifers-rejoice</link>
  815.  <description> The Florida Heartbeat Protection Act went into effect on Wednesday in the 'Sunshine State,' protecting babies with detectable heartbeats from the brutal effects of abortion. Both individuals in support and those in opposition uttered their feelings regarding the new law going into effect.
  816.  
  817. The Act makes it so that babies at around six-weeks gestation, when heartbeats are generally detectable, cannot be aborted. According to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, it has the potential to protect roughly 50,000 lives annually.
  818.  
  819. The law, however, does leave exceptions for cases where a mother’s life is at risk, when a fatal prenatal diagnosis occurs, and in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking.
  820.  
  821. In response to the news, many pro-life individuals and groups celebrated the potential this has to save lives.
  822.  
  823. “The Florida Heartbeat Act took effect today! That means preborn children are protected after 6 weeks gestation!” Catholic professor Michael New wrote on his X account linking to data from the Charlotte Lozier Institute about the 160 pregnancy centers in Florida who can serve more women, like the 88,000-plus they served in 2022, now that the heartbeat law is in effect.
  824.  
  825. “While not perfect, the Heartbeat Protection Act will nonetheless now SAVE tens of thousands of unborn children’s lives annually here in the Sunshine State!” Florida Voice for the Unborn wrote and linked to a verse in Psalms about rejoicing in what the Lord has done.
  826.  
  827. On the contrary, pro-aborts were mad that babies would be saved.
  828.  
  829. “As of this morning, 4 million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at an appearance in Jacksonville, Florida on Wednesday.
  830.  
  831. One user wrote, “The law is barbaric. Like the man who signed it,” in response to a woman who wrote that “today marks the day, my daughter has less rights than the day she was born.”
  832.  
  833. “Florida’s abortion ban will have a catastrophic impact on abortion access across the Southeast. As this years-long crisis continues to unfold and confusion mounts, abortion funds continue to show up and show out for their communities,” The National Network of Abortion Funds wrote with a graphic that read “F**K ABORTION BANS.”
  834.  
  835. Obviously, with new laws not everyone is going to get their way, but all I can say is that babies get to live and nobody should be against that.</description>
  836.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 2:38 PM</pubDate>
  837.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  838.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284006</guid>
  839.    </item>
  840. <item>
  841.  <title>MRC’s Bozell Joins FBN’s Varney in Slamming Media’s Campus Protest and Trump Coverage</title>
  842.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nb-staff/2024/05/02/mrcs-bozell-joins-fbns-varney-slamming-medias-campus-protest-and-trump</link>
  843.  <description> On Thursday, MRC President Brent Bozell appeared on the Fox Business’s Varney &amp; Company to break down how the leftist media are failing to properly cover the student protests.
  844.  
  845. Bozell and Varney also had a good laugh over the Trump trials backfiring on the left and MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace’s “end of democracy” fear-mongering.  
  846.  
  847. The segment began with Bozell admonishing network and cable coverage (with the exception of Fox News) for ignoring three key elements of the protests. 
  848.  
  849. First up, Bozell noted the lack of coverage of the protest backers: “The agitators, the professional people who are causing trouble funded by radical left-wing groups. How is that not a story?”
  850.  
  851. Bozell then called out the censorship of the ugly slurs on display: “Second, the comments that are being made. The chants! ‘Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too!’ Putting up signs that say ‘Final Solution.’ ‘From the river to the sea.’ All these messages that say kill Israelis. Not political, kill Israelis.”  
  852.  
  853. Bozell continued: “And then the third element. The big one that’s been missing here. Is this is all couched under a pro-Palestinian, it is not pro-Palestinian, it is pro-Hamas. And they’re not saying it. They’re not saying that this is endorsing a radical terrorist movement that slaughters thousands of Israelis.”
  854.  
  855.  
  856.  
  857.  
  858.  
  859.  
  860.  
  861.  
  862.  
  863. Later on in the segment, Varney and Bozell chatted about the left’s strategy of keeping Trump tied-up in the courtroom and how it has backfired.  
  864.  
  865. Bozell observed: “Why is Donald Trump going up in the polls? Because the public is seeing the puppet trials that are taking place right now….They’re saying this is fundamentally unfair. This guy is being kept off the campaign trail through these ridiculous lawsuits that are being thrown at him….and it’s backfiring on the left.”
  866.  
  867. Varney and Bozell then had a good laugh over MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace’s claim that a “free press” may no longer exist if Donald Trump wins in November.
  868.  
  869. The following is a complete transcript of the Fox Business Varney &amp; Company segment that aired on May 2: 
  870.  
  871.  
  872. Fox Business
  873. Varney &amp; Company
  874. May 2, 2024
  875.  
  876. HOST STUART VARNEY: The president of the Media Research Center is Brent Bozell and he joins me now. Brent studies the media and what they are up to. So I got two questions for you, Brent. Number one. How is the media covering the campus unrest and then deal with how the media is covering Trump trials? Start with the campus unrest please.
  877.  
  878. L. BRENT BOZELL: Ok, campus unrest. There’s a rule, a normal rule about reporting. Which is the analysis before an event or after an event is where you see real bias but when it’s hard news of an event it tends to be pretty good. Well there are exceptions to the rule and we’re talking about an exception to the rule. 
  879.  
  880. There are three things — elements of this in the hard news phase that Fox is covering. They should all be covering but they’re not. 
  881.  
  882. The first one, we just heard. The agitators, the professional people who are causing trouble funded by radical left-wing groups. How is that not a story? 
  883.  
  884. Second, the comments that are being made. The chants! “Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too!” Putting up signs that say “Final Solution.”  “From the river to the sea.” All these messages that say kill Israelis. Not political, kill Israelis. 
  885.  
  886. Second, Donald Trump.
  887.  
  888. VARNEY: Yeah. 
  889.  
  890. BOZELL: You’re seeing recent surveys that are showing this. Why is Donald Trump going up in the polls? Because the public is seeing the puppet trials that are taking place right now. I think they’re saying this is fundamentally unfair. This guy is being kept off the campaign trail through these ridiculous lawsuits that are being thrown at him. When he’s up, when he is going up two, three, four, five, six points in the polls while he’s sitting in a courtroom, that tells you that the public is fed up with this and it’s backfiring on the left. 
  891.  
  892. VARNEY: Next one, Brent. I want you to listen to what MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace said about the threat Trump poses to democracy. Roll it please.
  893.  
  894. CLIP OF MSNBC HOST NICOLLE WALLACE: Depending what happens in November — seven months from right now — this time next year, I might not be sitting here. There might not be a White House Correspondents Dinner or a free press. While our democracy won’t exactly fall apart immediately without it, the real threat looms larger. A candidate with outward disdain not just for a free press but for all of our freedoms and the rule of law itself. 
  895.  
  896. VARNEY: Okay, Brent. Wallace thinks Trump will destroy democracy. Do you think the media is destroying democracy?
  897.  
  898. BOZELL: Those same people that are chanting that Trump is trying to end democracy had nothing to say when there were attempts in 36 of  the 50 states of the United States to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, and the Supreme Court by a unanimous 9-0 vote declared it was unconstitutional. That it was — in fact — an attack on democracy. It’s these same hypocrites who are doing this. Welcome to today’s world. 
  899.  
  900. VARNEY: It never changes. Great stuff, Brent. Come and see us again. Don’t be a stranger, okay?
  901.  
  902. BOZELL: Thanks Stuart.
  903. </description>
  904.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 2:25 PM</pubDate>
  905.    <dc:creator>NB Staff</dc:creator>
  906.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284005</guid>
  907.    </item>
  908. <item>
  909.  <title>No, Demonstrations Today Not Like the 1960s</title>
  910.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/star-parker/2024/05/02/no-demonstrations-today-not-1960s</link>
  911.  <description>The current demonstrations on college campuses against Israel remind some of the unrest on college campuses during the 1960s.
  912.  
  913. But the comparison is not a good one.
  914.  
  915. The unrest of the 1960s was defined by the war in Vietnam and by the Civil Rights Movement. Both had practical, personal impact on young Americans in their own country.
  916.  
  917. American soldiers were fighting and dying in Vietnam. There was real, life-and-death impact on all Americans, and certainly on young Americans.
  918.  
  919. The military draft was still operative then. Despite various deferments, including deferment for university attendance, the draft was still a reality and was a looming presence for all college-age Americans. They knew they could be drafted and had friends and friends of friends who were.
  920.  
  921. The official number of American soldiers killed in Vietnam stands at 58,220.
  922.  
  923. Although there were legitimate moral concerns about American involvement in this war, the moral concerns were accompanied by young Americans having real skin in this game.
  924.  
  925. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s also had real personal moral impact on all Americans. And youth are always highly sensitive to the moral failings around them.
  926.  
  927. The reality of segregation and Jim Crow started getting national attention with the Civil Rights Movement, the activism of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other more violent groups in the movement.
  928.  
  929. In contrast to the woke activism of today, which is totally political in character, the Civil Rights Movement was led by a charismatic and articulate Black pastor and had a religious, moral tone rooted in the Christian church.
  930.  
  931. Anyone that questions this should read, or reread, King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963.
  932.  
  933. But King’s moral appeal was to an America very different than today.
  934.  
  935. In 1965, per Gallup, 70% of Americans said religion was personally “very important” to them. In 2023, by contrast, only 45% of Americans say religion is “very important.”
  936.  
  937. In 1962, per Gallup, 46% of Americans said they attended religious services over the last seven days.
  938.  
  939. In 2023, this was down to 32%.
  940.  
  941. During this period there were two major wars involving Israel and the surrounding Arab states.
  942.  
  943. In 1967, Israel prevailed in the Six-Day War, which began with preemptive action by Israel against the Egyptian army mobilized for attack, and subsequent aggression by Syria in the North and Jordan in the East. In 1973, Israel again prevailed against attacks on these same fronts.
  944.  
  945. In 1967, per Gallup, 45% of Americans supported Israel against 4% who supported the Arab states, with 26% with no opinion. In 1973, 48% of Americans expressed support for Israel versus 6% expressing support for the Arab states and 24% with no opinion.
  946.  
  947. Support for Israel among Americans during this period was one-sided and clear.
  948.  
  949. But, again, America today is very, very different.
  950.  
  951. Our young people in the 1960s understood what personal responsibility is about.
  952.  
  953. On a national level, in the 1960s, all young Americans faced the reality of military conscription. Today, regarding national obligation and service, there are virtually no demands on our youth.
  954.  
  955. Now President Joe Biden is even erasing their student loan obligations.
  956.  
  957. On a religious, moral level, religion then held a much stronger hold on the nation. Religion teaches and inspires a culture where individuals have a sense they belong to and have obligation to something beyond their own egotistical inclinations.
  958.  
  959. Nature abhors a vacuum, and as religion has weakened and disappeared from our culture, it has been replaced by politics and the welfare state.
  960.  
  961. The end of it all is we now have a generation of youth insulated from all sense of national and religious and moral personal responsibility.
  962.  
  963. So now they demonstrate in support of terrorists and against the only free country in the Middle East that shares the very values that made our own country great.</description>
  964.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 1:53 PM</pubDate>
  965.    <dc:creator>Star Parker</dc:creator>
  966.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284001</guid>
  967.    </item>
  968. <item>
  969.  <title>WATCH: Bishop’s Powerful Response to Censorship Demands of Stabbing Video</title>
  970.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/christian-baldwin/2024/05/02/watch-bishops-powerful-response-censorship-demands</link>
  971.  <description>Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel is back to preaching and has issued a powerful new sermon in defense of free speech and the natural rights of man.
  972.  
  973.  
  974.  
  975. On April 28, Bishop Emmanuel made his first public appearance after being viciously attacked by a knife-wielding assailant who left the bishop with only one eye. The bishop delivered a sermon in which he defended the right to freedom of speech as a fundamental human right and referred to the Australian government’s recent attempts to suppress the video of his stabbing on social media platforms such as X.
  976.  
  977. Bishop Emmanuel expressed dismay at attitudes that dismiss or outright attack freedom of speech, saying, “Every human being has the right to their freedom of speech and freedom of religion…and for us to say that free speech is dangerous, that free speech cannot be possible in a democratic country … I’m yet to fathom this.”
  978.  
  979. Bishop Emmanuel also lamented the state of the Western world and the increasing prevalence of a nihilistic viewpoint that fails to uphold universal moral truths or recognize basic human worth. 
  980.  
  981.  
  982.  
  983. “I’ll say it again, the Western world has succeeded exceedingly in giving value to everything, but I’ll say this with utmost sadness in my heart, the Western world has failed miserably in giving purpose to everything, but until we find the purpose of the thing, we can never give it value… Human rights is human value,” Bishop Emmanuel argued. 
  984.  
  985. The bishop contrasted this modern view with the attitudes of Australia’s forebears, who fought for human rights. 
  986.  
  987. “I am very proud of these great ANZAC warriors who gave their life up to the very human rights, to the very freedom of speech and freedom of religion,” Bishop Emmanuel said. “They died to keep and preserve the human identity.”
  988.  
  989. In recent weeks, the bishop has been the center of a controversy between the Australian government and Elon Musk. 
  990.  
  991. The head of Australia's eSafety commission, Julia Grant, issued an order on April 16 to X demanding that the platform take down the video of the stabbing of Bishop Emmanuel that had been proliferating on the platform. 
  992.  
  993. The order even prohibited users outside of the country from viewing the content. X’s Global Government Affairs Team refused to ban the content for users outside Australia, saying that the order was unnecessarily broad and outside the legal authority of the Australian government.  
  994.  
  995. Musk and X’s refusal to toe the line of the Australian government has attracted the criticism of numerous Australian politicians such as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. 
  996.  
  997. “By and large, people responded appropriately to the calls by the [eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant],” Albanese recently commented. “They stand, I think … I find it extraordinary that X chose not to comply and trying to argue their case.”
  998.  
  999. Australian Senator Jacqui Lambie even threatened Musk with prison time for not complying.
  1000.  
  1001. “Someone like that should be in jail, and the key be thrown away,” Lambie asserted. “That bloke should not have a right to be out there on his own ideology platform and creating hatred, you know, showing all this stuff out there to our kids and all the rest.”
  1002.  
  1003. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable. 
  1004.  
  1005.  </description>
  1006.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 1:39 PM</pubDate>
  1007.    <dc:creator>Christian Baldwin</dc:creator>
  1008.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284003</guid>
  1009.    </item>
  1010. <item>
  1011.  <title>MSNBC Hosts Praises Colleges That Surrendered To The Israel-Haters</title>
  1012.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/05/02/msnbc-hosts-praises-colleges-surrendered-israel-haters</link>
  1013.  <description>MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Alex Wagner used their respective Wednesday editions of All In and Alex Wagner Tonight to attack those who called in the police to end the illegal encampments and occupations on college campuses by claiming it was they who were escalating tensions and to prove their point, they pointed to those schools that surrendered to the mob.
  1014.  
  1015. Hayes came out of commercial break wondering what the big deal about violently breaking into a building and occupying it is, after all, actor Samuel L. Jackson was involved in a similar episode in the 60s, “Now, I tell this story for two reasons. One to remind us that college activism has long been a part of college education. The other reason, though, is to get a sense of proportion, which seems lacking today as we watched disturbing imagery emerge from campuses at Columbia, UCLA, University of Texas, University of South Florida, so many others, where cops or, in some cases, mobs took down pro-Palestinian student encampments and protests, as well as professors and journalists and just random bystanders.”
  1016.  
  1017.  
  1018.  
  1019.  
  1020.  
  1021.  
  1022.  
  1023.  
  1024.  
  1025. Hayes didn’t mention that the altercation counter-protestors had with the “pro-Palestinian student encampment” at UCLA came about because the campers assaulted a Jewish girl and committed other acts of violence the school did nothing about.
  1026.  
  1027. If violence sounds escalatory, Hayes was there to say that the real escalators are those who called in the cops, “The cumulative effect of this coverage, along with unverified assertions from police and politicians, has been to drive home the idea that student protests are basically a terrorist-level threat. That they have to be neutralized by battalions of cops armed like soldiers with MRAPs and sonic cannons. The reason this seems to me, a reaction that's out of proportion to the protests themselves.”
  1028.  
  1029. This led Hayes to praise those who surrendered to the mob, “It seems especially true when you look at other campuses like Brown University, where administrators negotiated with protesters who took down their encampment. At Wesleyan University whose president said the protesting there was non-violent and non-disruptive, adding, ‘as long as it continues in this way, the university will not attempt to clear the encampment.’”
  1030.  
  1031. Roughly 25 minutes later, Wagner played an NYPD video that did not sit well with her, “Sort of a half-promotional video for the NYPD, half a warning shot to future protesters. There's also a soundtrack, you may have noticed, and situation room footage as officers plan the Columbia sweep like it was, I don't know, the Bin Laden raid. It is not what you might call a tool for de-escalation.”
  1032.  
  1033.  
  1034.  
  1035.  
  1036.  
  1037.  
  1038.  
  1039.  
  1040.  
  1041. Violently occupying a building is not de-escalation either, but Wagner continued, and unlike Hayes, she actually mentioned what Brown agreed to, “But it is worth noting that some colleges have actually managed to do just that, to de-escalate the tension on their campuses this week. Both Brown and Northwestern University reached deals with student protesters this is week with protesters leaving encampments and the colleges agreeing to hear them out and to vote on divestment issues.”
  1042.  
  1043. Wagner didn’t mention that Northwestern agreed to also hire more Palestinian faculty, subsidize scholarships for five Palestinian students, and allow the mob and their supporters to sit on an advisory committee on university investments.
  1044.  
  1045. Both Brown and Northwestern’s response to the lawlessness and anti-Semitism was to give the anti-Semites more power and give their Jewish students and faculty nothing.
  1046.  
  1047. Still, for Wagner, the bad guys in this situation are anybody who objects to this madness, “This is happening across the country with lots of individual actors making separate decisions and that makes this story complicated, and that is important to remember because we have actors in our national discourse right now who are very much trying to exploit this tension for fairly obvious political gain.”
  1048.  
  1049. In related news, Northwestern is facing multiple lawsuits for its deal with the agitators.
  1050.  
  1051.  Here are transcripts for the May 1 shows:
  1052.  
  1053.  
  1054. MSNBC All In With Chris Hayes
  1055.  
  1056. 5/1/2024
  1057.  
  1058. 8:42 PM ET
  1059.  
  1060. CHRIS HAYES: In the spring of 1969, a group of students at Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, were frustrated by what they said was the school’s slow progress on civil rights and they protested and had been rebuffed, so they locked the college trustees in their office for two days and essentially held them hostage. Now, one of the trustees was Martin Luther King Sr., father of the recently slain civil rights leader. He began having chest pains and one of the students later said we let him out of there so we wouldn’t be accused of murder. That student and his classmates eventually gave up under a promise of amnesty from the college.
  1061.  
  1062. The college reneged and he was expelled, it would be years before he was rehabilitated, decades before he became known the world over as actor Samuel L. Jackson. Now, I tell this story for two reasons. One to remind us that college activism has long been a part of college education.
  1063.  
  1064. The other reason, though, is to get a sense of proportion, which seems lacking today as we watched disturbing imagery emerge from campuses at Columbia, UCLA, University of Texas, University of South Florida, so many others, where cops, or in some cases mobs, took down pro-Palestinian student encampments and protests, as well as professors and journalists and just random bystanders. 
  1065.  
  1066. The cumulative effect of this coverage, along with unverified assertions from police and politicians, has been to drive home the idea that student protests are basically a terrorist-level threat. 
  1067.  
  1068. That they have to be neutralized by battalions of cops armed like soldiers with MRAPs and sonic cannons. The reason this seems to me, a reaction that's out of proportion to the protests themselves. It seems especially true when you look at other campuses like Brown University, where administrators negotiated with protesters who took down their encampment. At Wesleyan University whose president said the protesting there was non-violent and non-disruptive, adding “as long as it continues in this way, the university will not attempt to clear the encampment.” 
  1069.  
  1070. ***
  1071.  
  1072. MSNBC Alex Wagner Tonight
  1073.  
  1074. 5/1/2024
  1075.  
  1076. 9:06 PM ET
  1077.  
  1078. ALEX WAGNER: Sort of a half-promotional video for the NYPD, half a warning shot to future protesters. There's also a soundtrack, you may have noticed, and situation room footage as officers plan the Columbia sweep like it was, I don't know, the Bin Laden raid. It is not what you might call a tool for de-escalation. But it is worth noting that some colleges have actually managed to do just that, to de-escalate the tension on their campuses this week. Both Brown and Northwestern University reached deals with student protesters this is week with protesters leaving encampments and the colleges agreeing to hear them out and to vote on divestment issues. Whether or not that can be replicated elsewhere at this point is totally unclear. This is happening across the country with lots of individual actors making separate decisions and that makes this story complicated, and that is important to remember because we have actors in our national discourse right now who are very much trying to exploit this tension for fairly obvious political gain.
  1079. </description>
  1080.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 1:12 PM</pubDate>
  1081.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  1082.    <guid isPermaLink="false">284000</guid>
  1083.    </item>
  1084. <item>
  1085.  <title>ABC Claims UCLA Mob Was ‘Largely Peaceful’ While They Gassed Police</title>
  1086.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/05/02/abc-claims-ucla-mob-was-largely-peaceful-while-they-gassed</link>
  1087.  <description> CNN proved themselves to be biased fools in the summer of 2020 when they claimed the Black Lives Matter Riots were “fiery but mostly peaceful.” Well, ABC News told them to hold their beer Thursday morning as they had correspondent Trevor Ault assert that the anti-Semitic/pro-Hamas encampment at UCLA was “largely peaceful” with no sign of “fighting back” against police while admitting that they were throwing stuff and using fire extinguishers to gas them.
  1088.  
  1089. The California Highway Patrol crackdown on the UCLA encampment, where they employed Nazi-style tactics against the Jews on campus, was already underway as ABC’s Good Morning America came on the air at 7:00 a.m. and was the first story they got to.
  1090.  
  1091. Ault was live on the scene where he reported “So far, we haven't seen a lot of physical resistance other than standing their ground.” But he did admit: “If anything, we’ve seen a few demonstrators who were throwing bottles, tossing water, and you actually at some points see some smoke that we believe is from fire extinguishers.”
  1092.  
  1093. According to Poison Control, the contents of fire extinguishers can be very harmful:
  1094.  
  1095.  
  1096. People with lung conditions like asthma or someone deliberately sprayed at close range can have more serious respiratory effects and might need medical attention. Contact of these powders with the eyes, nose, throat, and skin can cause irritation, which should improve after rinsing the exposed area. Deliberate inhalation or ingestion can cause serious symptoms such as pneumonia, seizures, irregular heartbeat, and kidney failure.
  1097.  
  1098.  
  1099.  
  1100.  
  1101.  
  1102.  
  1103.  
  1104.  
  1105.  
  1106.  
  1107. Throwing things and spraying chemicals in the face of law enforcement doesn’t sound like what non-violent demonstrators do. And Ault might have had someone give him a strong talking-to about disclosing those facts because it was the last time they were mentioned all morning.
  1108.  
  1109. In his 7:30 and 8:00-a.m. live shots, Ault dropped all mentions of the anti-Semitic mob throwing anything and using fire extinguishers. “They have said to me that their plan is never to fight back. That is not how they go about things,” Ault defended them in the 7:30 live shot. “Although, at least from what I have seen on the ground, we haven't been seeing people fight back. It's more about standing their ground.”
  1110.  
  1111. “So, they’ve been saying they're going to be peaceful,” he reported around 8:00. “We haven't seen violent clashes but you have to anticipate at any moment law enforcement is going to begin making a lot of arrests.”
  1112.  
  1113. Ault’s next report didn’t come until after ABC broke into The View to air President Biden’s address condemning the encampments.
  1114.  
  1115. After the address, they went to Ault for an update on the situation at UCLA. Possibly in response to those calling him out online for his earlier ridiculous description of the peaceful violence, Ault tried to have it both ways:
  1116.  
  1117.  
  1118. Now, I do want to specify from at least what we saw. This was a largely peaceful demonstration, at least in terms of the protesters not fighting back against the law enforcement presence that was there. But they also didn't necessarily give themselves up.
  1119.  
  1120.  
  1121. “And what we've heard from California Highway Patrol so far is that at least 132 people have been arrested here for this unlawful gathering,” he added.
  1122.  
  1123. The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
  1124.  
  1125.  
  1126. ABC’s Good Morning America
  1127. May 2, 2024
  1128. 7:03:51 a.m. Eastern
  1129.  
  1130. (…)
  1131.  
  1132. TREVOR AULT: So far, we haven't seen a lot of physical resistance other than standing their ground. We’ve seen some of them very distressed but screaming that they don't have weapons but still not giving up their ground here. If anything, we’ve seen a few demonstrators who were throwing bottles, tossing water, and you actually at some points see some smoke that we believe is from fire extinguishers.
  1133.  
  1134. But mainly we’re watching as these protesters are standing their ground after what has been many, many days here on campus of very intense situations that has escalated significantly just in the past 45 minutes or so. And this is probably one of the most intense clashes that we’ve seen as these campuses have been playing out all over the country.
  1135.  
  1136. (…)
  1137.  
  1138. 7:30:44 a.m. Eastern
  1139.  
  1140. AULT: We have been watching over those several days as they’ve basically been preparing for this moment. You’ll notice, if you look closely, that a lot of these demonstrators have hard hats, a lot have gas masks, a lot have eye-protective wear, too.
  1141.  
  1142. They have said to me that their plan is never to fight back. That is not how they go about things. But when I was asking them about it, it was largely about counter protesters; it could be a different thing with law enforcement involved. Although, at least from what I have seen on the ground, we haven't been seeing people fight back. It's more about standing their ground.
  1143.  
  1144. The big question now is how does law enforcement move forward?
  1145.  
  1146. (…)
  1147.  
  1148. 8:02:51 a.m. Eastern
  1149.  
  1150. AULT: Those protesters have been preparing for any kind of law enforcement tactics; they have hard hats; they have gas masks. So, they’ve been saying they're going to be peaceful. We haven't seen violent clashes but you have to anticipate at any moment law enforcement is going to begin making a lot of arrests. These are perhaps the most intense moments we’ve seen of what have been many days of tense moments at campuses across the country.
  1151.  
  1152. (…)
  1153.  
  1154. The View (Break in for President Biden’s address &amp; follow-up reports)
  1155. 11:13:03
  1156.  
  1157. AULT: Now, I do want to specify from at least what we saw. This was a largely peaceful demonstration, at least in terms of the protesters not fighting back against the law enforcement presence that was there. But they also didn't necessarily give themselves up. And so, law enforcement basically pushed them up against that library till it was one on one. They pulled them apart, put them into zip ties and took them away. And what we've heard from California Highway Patrol so far is that at least 132 people have been arrested here for this unlawful gathering.
  1158.  
  1159. (…)
  1160. </description>
  1161.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 1:11 PM</pubDate>
  1162.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  1163.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283999</guid>
  1164.    </item>
  1165. <item>
  1166.  <title>Doocy, Wegmann, Gutierrez Grill Inept KJP Over Biden’s Inaction on Pro-Hamas Students</title>
  1167.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/05/02/doocy-wegmann-gutierrez-grill-inept-kjp-over-bidens-inaction-pro</link>
  1168.  <description> Before being shamed into speaking on-camera Thursday to the American people about the dangerous anti-Semitic hooligans who’ve thrown college campus into chaos, Wednesday’s White House press briefing was dominated by numerous reporters — including Fox’s Peter Doocy, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and even NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez — pressing the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre on why Biden hasn’t been more public in denouncing these scenes.
  1169.  
  1170. The initial questions were rather pedestrian. After AP’s Zeke Miller asked “[w]hy haven’t we heard directly from the President”, he was followed by ABC’s Karen Travers wondering whether “anyone from the administration been in touch with...any of these universities that are seeing these protests”, CBS’s Weijia Jiang asking the same except with the NYPD, and NPR’s Mara Liasson inquiring as to how read in Biden is on the chaos.
  1171.  
  1172. Gutierrez finally called out what had been denials from Jean-Pierre about how much Biden knows and why he’s been out of sight aside from paper statements:
  1173.  
  1174.  
  1175. I wanted to follow up on a previous question that was asked. And, respectfully, you didn’t quite answer it. The question was, why hasn’t the President been more forceful in talking about the protests. You talk about how he’s talked about anti-Semitism. But specifically on the protest, why hasn’t the President been more forceful on that?
  1176.  
  1177.  
  1178. Jean-Pierre grew defensive, claiming she “hear[s] the question....but...the President has been the — one — the — no other president has spoken about anti-Semitism than this President.”
  1179.  
  1180.  
  1181.  
  1182.  
  1183.  
  1184.  
  1185.  
  1186.  
  1187.  
  1188. Gutierrez countered that was “not the question” and Jean-Pierre hit back that she was “answering it in the way that, I believe, is the best way to” do so with binder notes about Biden’s “strategic plan to deal — to counter anti-Semitism more than 100 new actions...across the administration.”
  1189.  
  1190. Some blah, blah, blah later, Gutierrez followed up with a fact-check (click “expand”):
  1191.  
  1192.  
  1193. GUTIERREZ: You mentioned that the President has taken questions on this. Again, respectfully he — he hasn’t. He did take a question where he said he “condemns those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” I know you’ve been asked about that. But since you brought up Charlottesville, what do you say to those critics who say that he is trying to have it both ways that he’s essentially, you know, trying to talk about both anti-Semitism and what’s going on with the Palestinians?
  1194.  
  1195. JEAN-PIERRE: I would say to those critics is no. He’s not doing a both sides scenario here. When you think about Charlottesville, you think about the — the — the vile anti-Semitism that we heard on the streets of Charlottesville, right here, uh, in Virginia — right — not far from here. The President and many of us wanted to make sure that was called out. Somebody died. A young woman lost her life and, when the President saw that, it put him in a situation where he believed it was the right thing to speak against that. He wrote an op ed that was in The Atlantic because — about that — about that. He decided to run because of what he saw in Charlottesville and that was just vile, nasty rhetoric. And you had — um — you know, a former President talk about both sides. There was no both sides here. None. Absolutely none. As it relates to the Palestinians, he was talking about the humanitarian — a dire humanitarian situation — that we’re currently seeing. I just mentioned the Secretary — Secretary Blinken is going to be talking about the humanitarian aid that we are trying to get into Gaza for the people of Gaza. We’re trying to get this hostage deal done so that we can get hostages home and create an environment to get humanitarian aid that would lead — also, the hostages would lead to a ceasefire. Those things are not the same. They are just not the same. Fundamentally, not the same. And it is in bad faith. It is in bad faith to say that.
  1196.  
  1197.  
  1198. Incredibly, one reporter moments later wondered if President Biden’s concerned the rise of campus protests are “turning“ ”the court of public opinion...against what the President is standing for” in supporting Israel:
  1199.  
  1200.  
  1201. Reporter: “These protests that have been going on college campuses, we're hearing that some of them are starting to wane a little bit, but they're not just a one day protest. This has been going on for quite some time. Is there some concern within the Biden administration that… pic.twitter.com/97C14wXBvF
  1202. — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 1, 2024
  1203. USA Today’s Joey Garrison had a few questions from the left, including twice bringing to the forefront concerns about how university leaders and law enforcement have acted “harshly” in ““forcibly shut[ting] down” encampments:
  1204.  
  1205.  
  1206. USA Today's @JoeyGarrison: “With that said, I mean, does the President believe New York Mayor Adams and leaders of Columbia University and — and City College of New York acted appropriately by having the protesters at those colleges — colleges arrested and their encampments… pic.twitter.com/7sJ80I5s1e
  1207. — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 1, 2024
  1208. After having been ignored on Monday, she called on Doocy and, like always, he asked something no one else in the room had brought up:
  1209.  
  1210.  
  1211. Some of these encampments, they had a matching tents. We’re being told that there are professional outside agitators involved. We don’t know if they’re being paid to sow chaos by domestic folks or foreign entities. Does President Biden want his administration to find out who is funding some of these protests?
  1212.  
  1213.  
  1214. Our friend Nicole Silverio of the Daily Caller had it right when she tweeted the Jean-Pierre promptly “short-circuited”.
  1215.  
  1216.  
  1217.  
  1218.  
  1219.  
  1220.  
  1221.  
  1222.  
  1223.  
  1224. Click “expand” to read her psychobabble and Doocy’s hardball follow-up wondering if Biden’s silence served as further indication that he’s “worried about losing the youth vote” if he were to firmly denounce them:
  1225.  
  1226.  
  1227. JEAN-PIERRE: What I can say — you know — um — I cannot — uh — I cannot speak to — uh — the organizations that are being reported out on the ground. That is not something for me to speak to. That is obviously something that local governments — uh — local officials — I keep saying local government — local officials are going to speak to. They’ll have better information on that. What we have said — and I don’t think I’ve iterated that yet from here is that the DOJ and FBI is going to continue to offer support to universities and colleges — uh — with — in respect to federal laws, so that is something that the DOJ and FBI is doing. As far as local organizations and what is all being reported on the ground, that is something that — I’m — that local law enforcement, I’m certainly, is looking into.
  1228.  
  1229. DOOCY: And I understand that President Biden historically has spoken —
  1230.  
  1231. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah.
  1232.  
  1233. DOOCY: — very forcefully about anti-Semitism, but this week, he’s not. He’s MIA. Is he that worried about losing the youth vote with these protesters?
  1234.  
  1235. JEAN-PIERRE: I’m going to be mindful. You’re talking about youth vote. You’re talking about 2024.
  1236.  
  1237. DOOCY: Support of young people.
  1238.  
  1239. JEAN-PIERRE: No, no, no, no. I — I — I — I have to say what I have to say and just give me a second. 
  1240.  
  1241. (....)
  1242.  
  1243. JEAN-PIERRE: I’ll speak more broadly. I can’t speak to youth people, youth and support and voters. That’s not something I can do from here. Uh, the President has taken a lot of policy actions here that he knows that young people care about and a lot of those actions are popular with those young folks, whether it’s giving a little bit of breathing room with student debt relief — so we made announcement today, matter of fact, and we are going to continue to do that, because we think it’s important as families or as an American and you coming out of college and you wanna build a family by home — uh — you have the opportunity to do that and not be crushed by student debt. The President understands how important it is to deal with that issue. Climate change — something that young people really truly care about. One of the crises that the President said he came into having to deal with was the climate change crisis. This is a President that has taken more — has taken aggressive, aggressive action to deal with climate crisis. You know, look, I can’t speak to — um — I can’t speak to youth voters or their support, but we’re going to do continue to take actions that we believe helps all Americans and all communities.
  1244.  
  1245.  
  1246. Doocy had one more question: “[Y]ou mentioned what he said in 2017 after Charlottesville. He said, about Trump’s response then, ‘Charlottesville, for me, was a moment where I thought silence would be complicity.’ So how does he explain — how do you explain his silence this week?”
  1247.  
  1248. Like with Gutierrez, Jean-Pierre stood pat and reiterated Biden “has not been silent on this issue when it comes to hate speech, anti-Semitism” but Doocy noted “he hasn’t” and his written words obviously mean nothing since “a school building at an Ivy League campus got taken over.”
  1249.  
  1250. Jean-Pierre dithered away and ran out the clock until Wegmann came up to close the briefing. 
  1251.  
  1252. Like Doocy, Wegmann stuck to his reputation of going against the grain. This time, he wondered what the administration made of “some of these college campuses where we’ve seen the U.S. flag torn down and the Palestinian flag replace it.”
  1253.  
  1254. Jean-Pierre declined to comment and instead spoke more generally about how none should be able to “disturb campuses in the way of taking over buildings in the way that we have seen” and “it is a dangerous time for [the Jewish] community and we have been very clear about what we need to do to fight that hate.”
  1255.  
  1256. The Press Secretary also refused to weigh in on Wegmann’s other question about whether Biden believes “higher education has gone off the rails that, you know, something more fundamental has gone wrong on these college campuses” given the rampant anti-Semitism among younger Americans.
  1257.  
  1258. To see the relevant transcript from the May 1 briefing (including even more protests-related questions), click here.</description>
  1259.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 11:42 AM</pubDate>
  1260.    <dc:creator>Curtis Houck</dc:creator>
  1261.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283997</guid>
  1262.    </item>
  1263. <item>
  1264.  <title>Gay Group Calls on Hollywood to Have Even MORE Gay Characters</title>
  1265.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/05/02/gay-group-calls-hollywood-have-even-more-gay</link>
  1266.  <description> LGBTQ characters in Hollywood TV fell more than 20 percent during the 2023-2024 season and now, the LGBTQ activist group, GLAAD, has become especially concerned that there weren't enough gay characters in movies and shows coming out of entertainment. The group issued a statement asking Hollywood to re-direct and add more gayness to shows.
  1267.  
  1268. GLAAD tallied all the characters in shows from 2023-2024 and found that there were 468 LGBTQ characters. During the 2022-2023 season there were a total of 596 LGBTQ characters meaning that there was a roughly 21.4 percent drop from last season to the most recent one.
  1269.  
  1270. God forbid we see less gay sex and transvestites on TV.
  1271.  
  1272. “We know that LGBTQ stories are crucial now more than ever—it is paramount to see our lives reflected on screen, challenging the misinformation and harmful rhetoric that is running unchecked by politicians and journalists,” GLAAD CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis said.
  1273.  
  1274. Ellis was sure to note that integrating stories with LGBTQ characters into TV is important for young people who want to see characters that “truly reflect themselves.” While I’d argue that her intention with that statement was to get more kids to join the LGBTQ mafia, she insisted it was to help networks and streamers “grow their audience.”
  1275.  
  1276. At the launch event for the report, Ellis GLAAD-ly proclaimed, “when all of us [LGBTQ’s] are in every show,” she’ll be satisfied about the level of representation. “We deserve to be in every story,” she said.
  1277.  
  1278.  
  1279. LGBTQ people are in every family, we're in every community, we're in every school, we're in every office. We belong there.
  1280. LGBTQ people deserve to be in every story. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ pic.twitter.com/3IAXhuy1m6
  1281. — Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) May 2, 2024
  1282. Even stories about a Christian family who follows biblical principles when it comes to homosexuality and gender? What about a story about Palestine? Should gay people be in those movies even though if you were gay in Palestine you’d probably end up beheadded?
  1283.  
  1284. No, Ellis, you don’t belong in every story. Get off your high horse of entitlement.
  1285.  
  1286. Thing is, there’s already WAY too much gay crap in shows.
  1287.  
  1288. For example, in the show “Abbott Elementary,” a second grade teacher used nonbinary pronouns in a recent episode, ABC’s “Station 19” show promoted kids attending pride parades and called gay open relationships “ethical non-monogamy” and ABC’s “The Conners’” show had characters begging for more gay propaganda in schools.
  1289.  
  1290. Yet for the left, that still isn’t good enough. What’s new?</description>
  1291.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 11:37 AM</pubDate>
  1292.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  1293.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283998</guid>
  1294.    </item>
  1295. <item>
  1296.  <title>Big Three Networks Ignore Hearing Exposing Biden Cabinet Member: She Did What?</title>
  1297.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/tom-olohan/2024/05/02/big-three-networks-ignore-hearing-exposing-biden-cabinet</link>
  1298.  <description> After a brutal hearing exposed connections between activist groups and a Biden cabinet official, all three major networks ignored the revelations in their coverage. 
  1299.  
  1300. During an April 30 hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources, Capital Research Center President Scott Walter and The Daily Signal Managing Editor Tyler O’Neil hammered Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and her department over damning allegations.
  1301.  
  1302. According to Walter, at the center of the allegations is that Haaland’s daughter Somah Haaland is a member of the radical environmentalist group Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA) which is plagued with communist connections. Even worse, Walter asserted that Deb Haaland has other connections to the PAA and that the group influences the policies of the Department of the Interior. 
  1303.  
  1304. Echoing Walter’s sentiments, O’Neil addressed the negative impact that Deb Haaland’s policies have on American energy, urging Congress to get to the bottom  of the “far-left infiltration of the Department of the Interior under President Biden.”
  1305.  
  1306. Tellingly, the big three networks entirely ignored this hearing in their evening coverage on April 31 and May 1, as ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News opted to cover other topics. 
  1307.  
  1308. On April 30, NBC Nightly News had time to talk about malfunctioning iPhone alarms and fearmonger about Russians on social media. In lieu of Deb Haaland’s scandals, ABC World News Tonight brought its viewers the story of a car crashing into a store in New Mexico and a death in a bounce house. The latter story also made it into CBS Evening News coverage, alongside the news that online scammers are targeting seniors. Stop the presses! 
  1309.  
  1310. Here’s What the Legacy Media Missed: Deb Haaland’s Damning Allegations
  1311.  
  1312. After detailing the communist connections of the PAA, Walter brought up Deb Haaland’s daughter PAA media organizer Somah Haaland. He also ripped the Department of the Interior, saying, “It’s shocking the Interior Department not only treats Pueblo Action Alliance as a source of policy wisdom but also appears to have made official policy with bias toward the alliance and provided improper assistance to the alliance." 
  1313.  
  1314. Walter went on to point out a case where Deb Haaland had put the concerns of such environmentalist groups first while ignoring the financial damage predicted by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.
  1315.  
  1316. Walter also mentioned that “multiple meetings between the secretary and Pueblo Action Alliance officials” have taken place and excoriated Deb Haaland for promoting “PAA by having its insignia appear in public photographs beginning her first day in office.” 
  1317.  
  1318. Moreover, Walter noted that PAA had posted these photographs on social media, later adding, “Activists have promoted Secretary Haaland’s involvement in a film produced by the director of PAA, which demands that oil, gas and mineral leasing outside of the Chaco National Historical Park be ended, a question on which the Secretary officially ruled in favor of PAA’s demand.” 
  1319.  
  1320.  
  1321.  
  1322.  
  1323.  
  1324. A ‘Sue and Settle’ Plot? 
  1325.  
  1326. When Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) mentioned a case of close cooperation between the Department of the Interior and leftist activists, O’Neil unearthed a disturbing pattern of collaboration. 
  1327.  
  1328. “What we’ve seen over and over again, in this case in particular as well, this ‘sue and settle’ strategy, where an activist group that shares the broad policy preferences of the administration, sues an administrative agency for a change in the law, claiming that there’s a legal requirement,” O’Neil told Gosar.  “And then what the agency winds up doing is settling that lawsuit, agreeing to implement the legal requirement.” O’Neil alleged that the agency repeatedly used this duck process and transparency requirements. 
  1329.  
  1330. Earlier in the hearing, O’Neil noted that the leftist Sierra Club successfully lobbied for a policy resulting in the “smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf in history.” He explained efforts by the leftist grant-making behemoth Arabella Advisors and the Soros-funded Tides Foundation to pour vast amounts of dark money into environmentalist groups. 
  1331.  
  1332. To sum up the situation at the Department of Interior, O’Neil explained that “the left's dark money network is propping up radical environmentalist groups that help steer policy at Interior.”
  1333.  
  1334. Disturbingly, the leftist media couldn’t have cared any less. 
  1335.  
  1336. [WATCH MORE: Rep. Mike Collins Goes After Department of the Interior for Energy Policies That Benefit America’s Adversaries]
  1337.  
  1338. Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News 818-460-7477, CBS News 212-975-3247 and NBC News 212-664-6192 and demand they report on Secretary Haaland’s scandalous behavior. </description>
  1339.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 11:28 AM</pubDate>
  1340.    <dc:creator>Tom Olohan</dc:creator>
  1341.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283996</guid>
  1342.    </item>
  1343. <item>
  1344.  <title>Scarborough Rips MSM For Mocking MAGA As Rednecks -- But Did the Same Himself</title>
  1345.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2024/05/02/scarborough-rips-msm-mocking-maga-rednecks-did-same-himself</link>
  1346.  <description> With all the focus on Joe Biden's decline in mental acuity, have we overlooked the possibility that his phone buddy Joe Scarborough is also suffering some short-term memory loss?
  1347. The question arises in light of this comment Scarborough--now in his seventh decade--made on today's Morning Joe.
  1348.  
  1349. "You know, Jen [Palmieri], there is a stereotype of the Trump voter that the media does. Oh, people are stumbling drunk out of their trailer park and, you know, shooting raccoons or something like that. No, it's bankers. It's lawyers. It's people with advanced degrees."
  1350.  
  1351. So Scarborough rips the MSM for stereotyping MAGA as people "stumbling drunk out of their trailer park, shooting raccoons?" Really, Joe?
  1352.  
  1353.  
  1354.  
  1355.  
  1356.  
  1357. This from the man we recently caught mocking Jim Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Investigations Committee as saying in a stereotypical southern accent, apropos of his committee's investigation of Hunter Biden: "We ain't got nuthin' but a squirrel fryer and a hound dog. "
  1358. Scarborough, who claimed: "Comer and his gang are running for the hills. In their coon hats, holding a squirrel fryer in their left hand and a shotgun in the right!"
  1359.  
  1360. The same Scarborough who we caught putting on a heavy Southern accent to mock Speaker Mike Johnson's belief in the Bible. In reality, as Scarborough surely knows, Johnson sounds more like a newsreader from Nebraska than anything resembling the typical native of his Shreveport, Louisiana home town.
  1361. More recently, we noted Scarborough indulging a negative stereotype of Southerners, describing legislators who had adopted a pro-life law as "old, fat, white men in Mississippi."
  1362. So yeah, Joe. The media really does mischaracterize Trump voters and the people they elect -- just have a look in the mirror.
  1363. Note: Instead of rednecks, Scarborough blamed "billionaires" for making the election of Trump possible, and he said they're "not understanding that this is not just a threat to democracy, but this is a threat to capitalism." At least Joe didn't point the finger at the Rothschilds. And a nervous Scarborough noted Trump "way ahead" in a number of swing-state polls. 
  1364. Here's the transcript.
  1365.  
  1366.  
  1367. MSNBC
  1368. Morning Joe
  1369. 5/2/24
  1370. 6:13 am EDT
  1371.  
  1372. JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, Jen, there, there's a stereotype of the Trump voter that the media does. Oh, it's, people are stumbling drunk out of their trailer park and, you know, shooting raccoons, or something like that.
  1373.  
  1374. No! It's bankers. It's lawyers. It's people with advanced degrees. This is something Anne Applebaum brought out so masterfully in her book, The Twilight of Democracy. Which is, it's, it's, the elites make this possible. 
  1375.  
  1376. Think about all the billionaires that said, Oh, I'll never vote for Trump. Now, it's like, yeah, I'll vote for Donald Trump. They know this. They read this. They read that Donald Trump says that there's going to be mass deportation. He's going to force prosecutors to arrest political enemies. He's going to execute generals that don't follow his commands. He's able to use SEAL Team Six to execute political opponents. And he says, you can't arrest me for that. 
  1377.  
  1378. You can go down the list. He's going to be a dictator from day one. He's going to terminate the Constitution. On and on, they've heard all of this. They heard what he said to Time magazine a couple of days ago. It is a dark, autocratic vision of America. And these people, these educated people with advanced degrees, are the ones saying, yeah, I'll support Donald Trump again. Thinking, oh, you know what? Maybe my investments will go, or maybe he won't tax me 3%. Not understanding that this is not just a threat to democracy, but this is a threat to capitalism.
  1379.  
  1380. JEN PALMIERI: Right. Well, I mean, that's the thing that makes me think maybe they will reconsider if they continue to hear him --
  1381.  
  1382. DONNY DEUTSCH: No. They don't get that.
  1383.  
  1384. PALMIERI: They don't, they don't, they will not make that connection?
  1385.  
  1386. DEUTSCH: What Joe just said: they don't get how it could affect them negatively.
  1387.  
  1388. PALMIERI: They don't think that that's going to affect affect business? But there are the 20% of people in Republican primaries who still are not voting for him. And there's the people that say that they were worried about Jan 6th. There's people that, you know, the Republicans Against Trump, those videos about people who voted for him twice but, because of January 6th, won't do it a third time. And, you know, keep doing these interviews, keep saying this, it's like, Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.
  1389.  
  1390. SCARBOROUGH: You look at the polls, though.
  1391.  
  1392. PALMIERI: I know, I know.
  1393.  
  1394. SCARBOROUGH: I mean, a lot of swing-state polls, if you're talking about Nevada, if you're talking about Georgia, if you're talking about North Carolina, they're not even close. Trump way ahead.
  1395. </description>
  1396.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 10:55 AM</pubDate>
  1397.    <dc:creator>Mark Finkelstein</dc:creator>
  1398.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283993</guid>
  1399.    </item>
  1400. <item>
  1401.  <title>PBS's Favorite 'Republican' Claims the GOP Now Is an 'Autocratic Movement'</title>
  1402.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2024/05/02/pbss-favorite-republican-claims-gop-now-autocratic-movement</link>
  1403.  <description>Former Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens is senior adviser of the Lincoln Project, a never-Trump “Republican” outfit whose pathetic anti-GOP stunts and scandals have discredited it everywhere but in the mainstream media, where it remains a reliable source for smears of the modern-day Republican party as fascistic. Stuart took his familiar act to Tuesday’s edition of Amanpour &amp; Co., which airs on PBS. Host Christiane Amanpour used Steven’s spicy quote in her show opener:
  1404.  
  1405.  
  1406. Stuart Stevens: Now, it's been a lot of sleepless nights trying to come to grips with it, but the Republican Party now is an autocratic movement.
  1407.  
  1408.  
  1409. (Stevens is a popular “Republican” in PBS-land. In October 2023 he pumped his then-new book The Conspiracy to End America on the PBS NewsHour comparing his old party to Nazis.)
  1410.  
  1411. Stevens was interviewed by co-host Walter Isaacson, who identified Stewart as “part of the anti-Trump movement in the Republican Party.” What? He's a former Republican.
  1412.  
  1413. Isaacson asked him if Trump being on trial would hurt or help his presidential campaign. Stevens had to admit the optics of Trump on trial could work in the candidate’s favor: "It's the grievance campaign. I am your retribution. The deep state is out to get us. What better proof that the deep state is out to get us than the deep state has me on trial.”
  1414.  
  1415. Prompted by Isaacson, Stevens alleged Trump supported Russian dictator Vladimir Putin before getting to the money quote.
  1416.  
  1417.  
  1418. Stevens: “And I've spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to come to grips with it, but the Republican Party now is an autocratic movement. And I think what you see in front of the Supreme Court, where they're actually trying to make the case that a president is above the law, it's just further proof that. It's why they -- the conservative movement is in love with Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin.”
  1419.  
  1420.  
  1421.  
  1422.  
  1423. Isaacson quoted from Stevens saying the Biden team has to be amazed at "how is this guy still in the race?" Stevens painted the GOP as racist.
  1424.  
  1425.  
  1426. Stevens: You know, a lot of this ultimately has to do with race, Walter. We're a country that's headed to becoming a minority-majority country. If you're 16 years and under in America, you -- the majority are nonwhite. Trump's base is 85 percent white. And it's that reality that drives so much of the Republican Party's efforts to change election laws and to sort of curate the election.”
  1427.  
  1428.  
  1429. Prodded by Isaacson, Stevens got more and more worked up, and, yes "alarmist."
  1430.  
  1431.  
  1432. Stevens: ….it's difficult to talk about this without sounding alarmist, and language is one of the issues that, you know, we struggle with. But I think if Donald Trump wins this election, it will be the last election that we can recognize as a normal American election. I know these people. As bad as you think they are, they are worse. They want a different America, and they're open about it when you really listen to them, and that's why they embrace Russia so much. They look at Russia, and they say, OK. Russia, no nonwhite people in power. Putin says there's no gays in Russia. There's no women in power. Elections are performative, but not decisive. That looks pretty good. And they embrace that….
  1433.  
  1434.  
  1435. Excepting a question about anti-Trumpers, including Sen. Liz Cheney, journalist Isaacson just facilitated Stevens and his long, broad smear of one of America’s two main political parties.
  1436.  
  1437.  
  1438. A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
  1439.  
  1440. Amanpour &amp; Co.
  1441.  
  1442. 5/1/24
  1443.  
  1444. 2:03:04 a.m. (ET)
  1445.  
  1446. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST, AMANPOUR AND CO.: Stuart Stevens, a former Republican strategist, admits that he's still coming to grips today's GOP and its embrace of a man facing 91 criminal charges, and the grand old party's creeping authoritarian character, as he explains with Walter Isaacson.
  1447.  
  1448. WALTER ISAACSON, CO-HOST, AMANPOUR AND CO.: Thank you, Christiane. And, Stuart Stevens, welcome back to the show.
  1449.  
  1450. STUART STEVENS, SENIOR ADVISER, THE LINCOLN PROJECT AND AUTHOR, "IT WAS ALL A LIE": Great to see you, Walter. Thanks.
  1451.  
  1452. ISAACSON: You've been a Republican strategist most of your life, worked for George Bush, Mitt Romney, and then have been part of the anti-Trump movement in the Republican Party. Now, you're watching him on trial. In some ways, he's running on the notion of grievance and persecution. Does this trial help him or hurt him?
  1453.  
  1454. STEVENS: Well, you know, I mean, I think that the sort of headline on this is that Trump is still a viable candidate and he's on trial. That in itself is extraordinary. Look, I think if you're one of the smart people running the Trump campaign, and they do have smart professionals now, this isn't what your ideal scenario would have been. But at the same time, it's not disqualifying for Trump, which it would be for any other candidate I can think of.
  1455.  
  1456. And what -- the essence of that is that Trump's campaign, particularly in this cycle, is based on being a victim. It's the grievance campaign. I am your retribution. The deep state is out to get us. What better proof that the deep state is out to get us than the deep state has me on trial.
  1457.  
  1458. ISAACSON: And you say these are really smart people running the campaign. Are they going to use this to help this politics of grievance?
  1459.  
  1460. STEVENS: Yes, they're going to use it to try to eat as a proof point. You know, if you have -- you have to get inside their heads, Walter, the whole Trump thing. So, in their world, Trump won the presidency, the White House has been stolen. And the only way that they can stop Trump, who was the legally elected president, they say, from winning again is to put them in jail.
  1461.  
  1462. So, this is just that process of the deep state trying to take away from you, the voter, your right to choose your president, and they would say, restore democracy. It's sort of like the aliens built the pyramids. Once you understand that, everything else makes a lot of sense. You know, the problem is aliens didn't build the pyramids. But that's how they see the world and this fits into that worldview.
  1463.  
  1464. ISAACSON: If Trump were not on trial, if there had not been all of these indictments, would he be in a stronger or a weaker position?
  1465.  
  1466. STEVENS: I think that the indictments helped him in the primary because it then became necessary to support Trump in the primary to prove that what the Democrats were saying and they put in the same Democrats in the deep state are exactly the same.
  1467.  
  1468. I don't think it is going to help him in the general election. I think that there's something that is going to be disconcerting and wearing the people to see a potential president of the United States, a former president of the United States on trial in multiple jurisdictions.
  1469.  
  1470. ISAACSON: But wait, haven't people been saying this for a year or two that eventually wear down?
  1471.  
  1472. STEVENS: Yes. Yes. But the audience has been -- the audience that has been voting has been that primary audience. And it was fascinating to see the split in the primary electorate that pretty much the threshold belief that if you voted for Trump, you believe that he won the presidency last time.
  1473.  
  1474. Very few of Nikki Haley's voters believe that. The majority of the country doesn't believe that. So, I just think that -- you know, I've compared the Trump candidacy to somebody walking around with a paper bag full of water. I don't think it's going to leak, but I think there's a very good chance it's going to go -- and when it goes, it's going to be very hard to put the water back in the bag.
  1475.  
  1476.  
  1477.  
  1478. ISAACSON: Were you surprised that the Republican Party, not just a hardcore base, but a majority of people in the primaries, rallied around him that way?
  1479.  
  1480.  
  1481.  
  1482. STEVENS: Oh, Walter, you know, I had a going out of business sale with any optimism in the Republican Party. I think that we've seen a complete collapse of any moral authority of the party. And the people to blame are not Donald Trump. Donald Trump is just being Donald Trump. It's all of the people that you and I know, and I helped elect a lot of them, who before Trump, they wouldn't have had lunch with Trump. They wouldn't let Trump in their house. They know that he's destructive to democracy. They know he's not a conservative. They know that Putin helped elect him. And yet, they still support him.
  1483.  
  1484. ISAACSON: Why is that?
  1485.  
  1486. STEVENS: That is a profound question. And I asked myself that. And that led me to write this book, "It Was All a Lie." And what -- the only conclusion I come to that makes any sense to me, and I think it makes any sense at all, is that all of these things that we espoused as deep values,
  1487.  
  1488. Walter, that the party held, character counts, strong on Soviet Union, strong on Russia, the deficit matters, all of these things, we said were values were in fact just marketing slogans.
  1489.  
  1490. So, OK, that's not the case then. So, character really doesn't count. Sure, we'll support the candidate who supports Vladimir Putin in, you know, the largest war in Europe since World War II. I don't know how else to come to a conclusion because people don't abandon deeply held beliefs in a couple of years. And the party has just walked away from these.
  1491.  
  1492.  
  1493.  
  1494. You know, the Republican Party now doesn't really exist as a normal American political party in any kind of tradition. It exists to defeat Democrats. And, you know, that's how cartels operate. Nobody asks OPEC, what is your higher purpose? You sell oil. And, you know, it's not like a fun thing to admit. And I've spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to come to grips with it, but the Republican Party now is an autocratic movement. And I think what you see in front of the Supreme Court, where they're actually trying to make the case that a president is above the law, it's just further proof that. It's why they -- the conservative movement is in love with Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin.
  1495.  
  1496. ISAACSON: There's a group of people in the Republican Party who have, of course, pushed back Liz Cheney, most prominent among them, even Senator Mitt Romney, Former Vice President Mike Pence. Do you see the possibility that more and more Republicans like that will come forward between now and the election?
  1497.  
  1498. STEVENS: I don't think there's many Republicans like them. I think if Trump is convicted it might make a difference with some. You know what – I think it's very interesting to look at, say, Chris Christie, who was a former client of mine. Loved the guy. Could not believe he endorsed Donald Trump in 2016. I remember standing at Atlanta Airport and seeing, you know, CNN and literally tears came to my eyes. It was like, how is this person that I love doing this. And I think he would say it was a mistake now, which is good. What he's going out there and saying now is what should have been said. But when you listen to Chris Christie, how do you come to any other conclusion but you have to support Joe Biden? Same with Asa Hutchinson, who ran in the Republican primary, former governor of Arkansas, another former client of mine, a really good and decent human being, and you may not agree with his politics. He has to support. Liz Cheney has to support Biden. Mitt Romney will support Biden. I think --
  1499.  
  1500.  
  1501.  
  1502. ISAACSON: Well, you think or he should --
  1503.  
  1504. STEVENS: I think they will. I think those two definitely will.
  1505.  
  1506. ISAACSON: Do you think that Biden -- and Biden hadn't called them yet? Do you think Biden should reach out to all of them and create a Republicans for Biden committee?
  1507.  
  1508. STEVENS: Sure. When the time is right. You know, if a prominent Republican came to me and said, I want to endorse Joe Biden, my advice, as wearing my political consultant hat, would be, that's great. I would wait. Because if you do it now, it's not going to mean as much as if you do it, say, during the Democratic Convention. And timing is pretty much everything in politics. So, I hope this will happen. If Trump is convicted, it may make that entry ramp a little smoother. But really, you don't need a conviction in any of these trials to know that Donald Trump should not be president. So, you know, it's just -- I mean, think about it, Walter, the Republican Party doesn't have room for a Cheney? Really? A Cheney? What do you do with that?
  1509.  
  1510. And there is no Republican Party to go back to. And people just have to come to grips with that. There's a kind of false hope that somehow we can just look beyond Trump, and McConnell expressed a lot of this, and a lot of these sort of gentry Republicans have held their nose and say, well, you know, we're just going to be able to put Trump behind us. No, no. The party -- there is a need for a center right conservative party in America. That cannot be the Republican Party as it's currently construed.
  1511.  
  1512.  
  1513.  
  1514. ISAACSON: So, wait. What happens if there's a need for a center right party and the Republican Party has abandoned that? What do you see down the road?
  1515.  
  1516.  
  1517.  
  1518. STEVENS: I think 2032 is the best hope that you could have a sane center right party that will emerge. You know, pain is the best teacher in politics. Arguably, maybe the only teacher. And what needs to happen is Republicans need to lose, and they need to lose again and again. And then, out of some sense of survival, you could see a sane party emerging.
  1519.  
  1520. You know, a lot of this ultimately has to do with race, Walter. We're a country that's headed to becoming a minority majority country. If you're 16 years and under in America, you -- the majority are nonwhite. Trump's base is 85 percent white. And it's that reality that drives so much of the Republican Party's efforts to change election laws and to sort of curate the election.
  1521.  
  1522. ISAACSON: You talk about the politics of grievance and of anti-corporate, anti-state feelings. How does Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fit into this equation?
  1523.  
  1524. STEVENS: It's a great question. I think it comes down to who RFK. Jr. is. If come October, and RFK Jr. is defined as a crusading environmentalist lawyer that took on big corporations, that guy's going to hurt Joe Biden. If RFK Jr. is defined as this wacky conspiracy nut who has said that there is no safe vaccine, which means he's basically the, you know, anti-polio vaccine candidate who believes -- has expressed these conspiracies about the CIA killing his father and how, you know, Prozac leads to school shootings, I think that guy will probably hurt Trump more.
  1525.  
  1526. But, you know, if it was up to me, I would rather just have a straight race with no third-party candidates. It's a cleaner race. You have to make it a choice between Trump and Biden. And there are voters out there who don't like Trump, who are uncomfortable with Biden. If you give them any sort of socially accepted off ramp, my fear is that they'll take them.
  1527.  
  1528. That was a great fallacy of a No Labels candidate. And all the candidates they talked about definitely would have just helped elect Donald Trump, which maybe is one of the reasons that ultimately, they didn't go forward. But, you know, in The Lincoln Project, we're out there defining Robert Kennedy for what he is, a conspiracy nut who's anti-vaxxer. I think that's what needs to be done. And I hope that's who he is in October.
  1529.  
  1530. ISAACSON: The last few lines of your op-ed, let me quote them to you. You say, we should not normalize how extraordinary it is that Mr. Trump is still a viable candidate for president. The Biden campaign will watch the spectacle unfold asking, how is this guy still in the race? So, let me ask you, how is this guy still in the race?
  1531.  
  1532. STEVENS: It goes, I think, to a fundamental hollowness that existed within the Republican Party that Trump brought to light.
  1533.  
  1534. ISAACSON: But also, the American electorate?
  1535.  
  1536. STEVENS: Well, you look at among Democrats, Trump is, you know, not getting a lot of support. But yes, you would have to say he is appealing to a dark side of America. And we've had other candidates who did that. George Wallace did it. We just didn't have him nominated by a major political party. The Democratic Party rejected George Wallace. The Republican Party embraced it. You know, I think that there has been, by the establishment of the Republican Party embracing Trump, it has given a permission structure for people who are troubled by a lot of Trump to say, well, he couldn't -- he must not be that bad. I think he's a little weird and all this, but, hey, my governor -- I know my governor better. My Senator, they're normal humans. They support Trump. And that is the failure of the party not to stand up to Trump.
  1537.  
  1538. But look, if you're going to ask me if Donald Trump wins his next race, does it say something that's very, very troubling about the future of democracy? My answer overwhelmingly is yes. You know, it's difficult to talk about this without sounding alarmist, and language is one of the issues that, you know, we struggle with. But I think if Donald Trump wins this election, it will be the last election that we can recognize as a normal American election.
  1539.  
  1540. I know these people. As bad as you think they are, they are worse. They want a different America, and they're open about it when you really listen to them, and that's why they embrace Russia so much. They look at Russia, and they say, OK. Russia, no nonwhite people in power. Putin says there's no gays in Russia. There's no women in power. Elections are performative, but not decisive. That looks pretty good. And they embrace that.
  1541.  
  1542. So, the idea, you know, America is rapidly changing, non-college educated white voters have the largest declining demographic in the country, and they find it unsettling and troubling and they would like to stop that. And they will -- they are about the business of trying to change elections so that they reduce the power of those who see a different America. And that's -- the Electoral College facilitates that. Biden won by 7 million votes, but it's 45,000 votes to change hands in just exactly the right places Trump would still win. So, I think it's a race about the future of America. I think the cliche this is the most important race of our lifetime has never been more true.
  1543.  
  1544. ISAACSON: Stuart Stevens, thank you so much for joining us again.
  1545.  
  1546. STEVENS: Thank you, Walter.
  1547.  
  1548. AMANPOUR: So, that was two Republicans, two former Republicans, talking about their party today.
  1549. </description>
  1550.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 10:27 AM</pubDate>
  1551.    <dc:creator>Clay Waters</dc:creator>
  1552.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283988</guid>
  1553.    </item>
  1554. <item>
  1555.  <title>Guess Which Outlet Internet Traffic Cop NewsGuard Is Applauding OpenAI for Partnering With</title>
  1556.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/gabriela-pariseau/2024/05/02/guess-which-outlet-internet-traffic-cop-newsguard</link>
  1557.  <description>You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours seems to be NewsGuard’s attitude toward OpenAI.
  1558.  
  1559. Gordon Crovitz, the Co-editor and chief of so-called media ratings firm NewsGuard, wrote an article praising OpenAI artificial intelligence ChatGPT’s use of “Trustworthy Journalism” in its answers. But trustworthy according to whom? Well, NewsGuard’s biased ratings system, of course. This comes just two and a half months after ChatGPT refused to answer which news sources are the worst and instead directed MRC Free Speech America researchers to look to NewsGuard ratings for answers. 
  1560.  
  1561. “Trusting legacy media to train AI is just about as ridiculous as chickens trusting a fox to guard the hen house,” said Michael Morris, Director of MRC Free Speech America. “But that’s exactly what NewsGuard is asking users to do here, and that can only lead to one thing: a really bad day for the chickens.”
  1562. In his recent article, Crovitz applauded OpenAI for its recent licensing agreement with The Financial Times (FT), which just so happens to have a 100/100 NewsGuard rating. 
  1563.  
  1564. “The AI models are ‘trained’ on whatever they can find on the internet, so when people ask the chatbots about topics in the news, their responses are based on the news sources the models are able to access,” Crovitz wrote. “OpenAI just announced that the Financial Times is the latest news publisher to get a licensing agreement, which means that its ChatGPT will be able to use the highly regarded London-based source of financial and business news in its training data.” 
  1565.  
  1566. FT has repeatedly shown its bias over the years including when in 2018 it made leftist billionaire George Soros its “person of the year.” The outlet has also propped up President Joe Biden when his bad economic policies predictably led to bad economic outcomes. “Unemployment rate in US falls unexpectedly to 13.3%,”  FT wrote in a headline. The Financial Times editor and columnist Edward Luce also parroted claims of the Russian collusion hoax when he was interviewed on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. 
  1567.  
  1568. The AI platform is also reportedly negotiating similar licensing agreements with CNN  and Politico –which NewsGuard gave ratings of 80 and 100 respectively– along with News Corp. which owns a conglomeration of outlets, according to Bloomberg News.  
  1569.  
  1570. Crovitz is also in no position to label what news is “trustworthy” as his own ratings firm has repeatedly shown bias and relaxed standards toward leftist media outlets while giving right-leaning media outlets low scores. 
  1571.  
  1572. MRC Free Speech America has repeatedly shown that NewsGuard’s ratings system favors leftist media outlets. Using a media bias chart provided by AllSides in January 2023, the MRC exposed NewsGuard for giving a high average score of 91/100 to media on the “left” while slapping “a low average score of 66/100 to media on the “right”. This mirrored MRC’s previous studies which found very similar results.
  1573.  
  1574. NewsGuard showed its true colors when The New York Times, TIME, Politico and Reuters each falsely reported that Israel was responsible for an airstrike on Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Those who did not just take Hamas’s health ministry at its word soon learned via U.S. intelligence assessment that the explosion was caused by a “failed rocket launch by militant terrorists,” as Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) put it.
  1575.  
  1576. Despite the very public flub, Time, Politico and Reuters each continue to have a perfect 100/100 rating from NewsGuard. While NewsGuard docked The Times’s score in February and mentioned the Gaza hospital fake news that the leftist rag published, the ratings firm notably did not reduce the score due to its criteria that media outlets not “repeatedly publish false or egregiously misleading content.” Instead, NewsGuard lowered the media outlet’s score because The Times no longer “Handles the difference between news and opinion responsibly.”
  1577.  
  1578. NewsGuard gave USA Today a perfect score, which did not even change after the outlet admitted to publishing 23 fabricated stories in 2022.
  1579.  
  1580. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the CensorTrack contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.</description>
  1581.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 10:21 AM</pubDate>
  1582.    <dc:creator>Gabriela Pariseau</dc:creator>
  1583.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283995</guid>
  1584.    </item>
  1585. <item>
  1586.  <title>Colbert Suggests Feds Will Monitor Women Under Trump, Attacks Him on Israel</title>
  1587.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/05/02/colbert-suggests-feds-will-monitor-women-under-trump-attacks-him</link>
  1588.  <description>CBS’s Stephen Colbert reacted to Donald Trump’s interviews with Time and Fox News on Wednesday’s edition of The Late Show by attacking him on issues ranging from abortion to Israel.
  1589.  
  1590. Colbert noted that in the Time interview, “Trump tried to dodge any question at all about abortion by claiming he would leave it up to the states, but said he's fine with states monitoring pregnant women, so they don't get abortions.”
  1591.  
  1592.  
  1593.  
  1594.  
  1595.  
  1596.  
  1597.  
  1598.  
  1599.  
  1600. It would be more accurate to say Trump took a position of complete federal non-interference, “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”
  1601.  
  1602. Regardless, Colbert raised the prospect of the invention of the menstrual cycle police, "Well, then why stop at pregnancy? Why not monitor women for their entire cycle? ‘Open up! Open up! It's the feds! It's gonna be a light day!’”
  1603.  
  1604. Colbert followed up with a juvenile digression, “Not sure how I was holding that bullhorn, I’m not sure why I was talking into a hoagie. Light butt play. Light butt play. What do you think of that, Ed? Ed, what are you think about, what about you, Ed? You ever have light butt play? What about you, Doc?”
  1605.  
  1606. Moving on, Colbert reported, “Trump also assured the nation that he's going to be way better at staffing this time around, saying, [TRUMP IMPRESSION] ‘The advantage I have now is I know everybody. I know people. I know the good, the bad, the stupid, the smart.’" 
  1607.  
  1608. Reverting back to his normal voice, Colbert continued, to great amounts of applause, “You can just say ‘good’ and ‘smart,’ we already know you're pretty tight with the bad and the stupid. They're your sons.”
  1609.  
  1610. Colbert also recalled that “yesterday, he also called into Fox News and weighed in on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.”
  1611.  
  1612. In the clip of Hannity, Trump explained that “We have to let Israel complete their war on terror. It's a horrible thing, but they have to do it and they have to do it fast.”
  1613.  
  1614. There are some things that are unpleasant or miserable, but have to be done. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner the misery ends, but Colbert played dumb, “Yes, horrible things are only horrible if they aren't done really fast. ‘Kids, I am leaving you and your mom for my college intern, but it's okay 'cause I'm leaving in a jetpack. Pshhhh.’"
  1615.  
  1616. While Colbert devoted portions of his Wednesday monologue to taking apart Trump’s platform, do not expect him to do the same when he takes his show on the road to Chicago and the DNC in a few months.
  1617.  
  1618. Here is a transcript for the May 1 show:
  1619.  
  1620.  
  1621. CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
  1622.  
  1623. 5/1/2024
  1624.  
  1625. 11:45 PM ET
  1626.  
  1627. STEPHEN COLBERT: Trump tried to dodge any question at all about abortion by claiming he would leave it up to the states, but said he's fine with states monitoring pregnant women, so they don't get abortions. Well then why stop at pregnancy? Why not monitor women for their entire cycle? "Open up! Open up! It's the feds! It's gonna be a light day!" 
  1628.  
  1629. Not sure how I was holding that bullhorn, I’m not sure why I was talking into a hoagie. Light butt play. Light butt play. What do you think of that, Ed? Ed, what are you think about, what about you, Ed? You ever have light butt play? What about you, Doc? 
  1630.  
  1631. Trump also assured the nation that he's going to be way better at staffing this time around, saying, [TRUMP IMPRESSION] "The advantage I have now is I know everybody. I know people. I know the good, the bad, the stupid, the smart." [NORMAL VOICE] You can just say "good" and "smart," we already know you're pretty tight with the bad and the stupid. They're your sons. 
  1632.  
  1633. Now, yesterday, he also called into Fox News and weighed in on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
  1634.  
  1635. DONALD TRUMP: We have to let Israel complete their war on terror. It's a horrible thing, but they have to do it and they have to do it fast.
  1636.  
  1637. COLBERT: Yes, horrible things are only horrible if they aren't done really fast. "Kids, I am leaving you and your mom for my college intern, but it's okay 'cause I'm leaving in a jetpack. Pshhhh."
  1638. </description>
  1639.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 10:00 AM</pubDate>
  1640.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  1641.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283994</guid>
  1642.    </item>
  1643. <item>
  1644.  <title>PROPAGANDA: CBS Airs Gazan Kids Thanking U.S. Campus Protester-Vandals</title>
  1645.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/05/02/propaganda-cbs-airs-gazan-kids-thanking-us-campus-protester</link>
  1646.  <description>Tonight’s CBS Evening News dispatch from Gaza included a pretty blatant piece of propaganda: a group of children thanking American campus protesters for their “protests and solidarity”. 
  1647.  
  1648. Watch as correspondent Ramy Inocencio introduces this moment of thanks to American pro-Hamas useful idiots and other leftists demanding that the universities accommodate their BDS demands.
  1649.  
  1650.  
  1651.  
  1652.  
  1653.  
  1654.  
  1655. RAMY INOCENCIO: And for the first time, aid started flowing through a reopened border crossing destroyed on October 7th. As Gazans rallied to thank U.S. university students for their protests and solidarity. 
  1656.  
  1657.  
  1658. The report was otherwise your normalish dispatch from Gaza. A mention of the tension between the Biden and Netanyahu administrations, respectively, over a potential Blinken-brokered ceasefire, allowing for prisoner exchanges. There’s Blinken fretting over a potential IDF invasion of Rafah, and Bibi saying he’s doing it no matter what. Petty standard stuff.
  1659.  
  1660. There was also the quick interview of a hostage family wherein they firmly demanded something be done in furtherance of the incarceration of hostages. Again, pretty standard stuff.
  1661.  
  1662. Standard stuff until the kids with signs get trotted out, with their entirely organic artwork and proper university logos. Totally spontaneous, I’m sure. Notice the children bring guided by their "adults"
  1663.  
  1664. Seriously, who at CBS thought it was a good idea to air pro-Hamas and pro-student rioter propaganda? It is very brief but serves its purpose. Ultimately, the net effect of this video will be to embolden pro-Hamas protesters in the U.S. to ratchet up their efforts.
  1665.  
  1666. An otherwise unremarkable report on the state of affairs in Gaza was made remarkable by the willful broadcasting of pro-Hamas propaganda.
  1667.  
  1668. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, May 1st, 2024:
  1669.  
  1670.  
  1671. JAMES BROWN: Secretary of State Antony Blinken was back in Israel today for the seventh time since the war with Hamas began last October. Blinken is pushing hard for a stop to the fighting, but CBS's Ramy Inocencio reports from Tel Aviv, progress on a deal seems out of reach.
  1672.  
  1673. RAMY INOCENCIO: Handshakes and smiles aside, in the quest for a cease-fire with Hamas, secretary of state Antony Blinken shot down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan for a final Gaza invasion.
  1674.  
  1675. ANTONY BLINKEN: We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah, absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed.
  1676.  
  1677. INOCENCIO: But a Netanyahu advisor confirms to CBS News the prime minister is not backing down from his plan to attack Rafah. A more receptive welcome came from families of hostages pleading for a cease-fire to get all hostages home.
  1678.  
  1679. AVIVA SIEGEL: I feel like I'm broken up into pieces.
  1680.  
  1681. INOCENCIO: For Aviva Siegel, her American husband, Keith, is one of them. This proof of life video released just days ago.
  1682.  
  1683. SIEGEL: And I know that Keith has had enough. Our family has had enough. Our country’s had enough.
  1684.  
  1685. INOCENCIO: Aviva herself was a hostage released after 51 days. She, her daughter,and families of other American hostages had a face-to-face with Blinken. What was the feeling?
  1686.  
  1687. DAUGHTER: Really grateful for what the United States has been doing since October 7th.
  1688.  
  1689. INOCENCIO: Another sticking point to a cease-fire, aid to Gaza. The U.N. warns of impending famine. Blinken toured routes being ramped up and being built into the Strip, and for more.
  1690.  
  1691. BLINKEN: It needs to be accelerated, it needs to be sustained.
  1692.  
  1693. INOCENCIO: And for the first time, aid started flowing through a reopened border crossing destroyed on October 7th. As Gazans rallied to thank U.S. university students for their protests and solidarity. 
  1694.  
  1695. And Antony Blinken left the region a few hours ago back to Washington. Israel hasn't confirmed it’ll send a delegation to any cease-fire talks. Hamas still hasn’t replied to Israel’s proposal. JB.
  1696.  
  1697. BROWN: Thank you, Ramy.
  1698.  
  1699.  
  1700.  </description>
  1701.  <pubDate>May 2nd, 2024 12:32 AM</pubDate>
  1702.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  1703.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283991</guid>
  1704.    </item>
  1705. <item>
  1706.  <title>NBC News Is Only Network To Report On Suspected ISIS Border Crosser</title>
  1707.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/05/01/nbc-news-only-network-report-suspected-isis-border-crosser</link>
  1708.  <description>The catastrophe along the U.S. southern border has all but disappeared from the corporate network evening news. A recent NBC News story demonstrates why networks must still report on the border, notwithstanding that issue driving President Joe Biden’s unfavorable numbers.
  1709.  
  1710. Watch as NBC News correspondent Julia Ainsley describes a shocking scenario wherein an Uzbek crossed the border illegally in 2022, was released into the United States only to struggle to find him once it was known that he was a potential member of ISIS:
  1711.  
  1712.  
  1713.  
  1714.  
  1715.  
  1716.  
  1717. JULIA AINSLEY: Tonight, among the record wave of migrants crossing the southern border, a suspected ISIS member who lived freely in the U.S. for nearly two years, two U.S. officials tell NBC News. 33-year-old Jovokhir Attoev of Uzbekistan crossed into Arizona in February 2022, where he was apprehended and vetted by both Customs and Border Protection and I.C.E. He was not on the U.S. terror watchlist and he was released into the U.S., those sources tell us. Then, in May 2023, Uzbekistan put out an international alert saying that Attoev was affiliated with ISIS and wanted there. But it took nearly a year for U.S. officials to figure out the suspected ISIS member was living freely here in the U.S.
  1718.  
  1719.  
  1720. It is inconceivable that it would take the government almost a year to find a man suspected of being an actual terrorist. Compare that to the dispatch with which the government is able to locate random school board protesters, pro-life activists, or random grandmas walking the Capitol grounds on January 6th, and you begin to sense a real disconnect. 
  1721.  
  1722. The report leaves viewers with some uncomfortable questions: how many more suspected ISIS terrorists have crossed, unvetted, into the United States? Of those, how many are known to the government and what is being done in order to be able to track them down? There is no answer for that, which is not good given the Biden administration’s proposal to bring Gaza refugees into the United States. 
  1723.  
  1724. It is shocking that such a report would even make it to air, given the media’s propensity to cover for the administration’s failures. To their credit, NBC News reported an uncomfortable story- which is more than can be said for their competitors.
  1725.  
  1726. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, May 1st, 2024:
  1727.  
  1728.  
  1729. LESTER HOLT: We're back with our NBC News report on the terror concerns at the U.S. border. We've learned a suspected ISIS member not only crossed into the U.S. illegally, he was also living here for quite some time before anyone realized it. Here's Julia Ainsley.
  1730.  
  1731. JULIA AINSLEY: Tonight, among the record wave of migrants crossing the southern border, a suspected ISIS member who lived freely in the U.S. for nearly two years, two U.S. officials tell NBC News. 33-year-old Jovokhir Attoev of Uzbekistan crossed into Arizona in February 2022, where he was apprehended and vetted by both Customs and Border Protection and I.C.E. He was not on the U.S. terror watchlist and he was released into the U.S., those sources tell us. Then, in May 2023, Uzbekistan put out an international alert saying that Attoev was affiliated with ISIS and wanted there. But it took nearly a year for U.S. officials to figure out the suspected ISIS member was living freely here in the U.S. 
  1732.  
  1733. U.S. Officials tell us DHS made the alarming discovery after reviewing Attoev’s application for asylum. Shortly after DHS connected the dots, ICE arrested him here, in Baltimore, just two weeks ago. Former Homeland Security officials tell us his case raises red flags about the vetting process for migrants after they cross the border.
  1734.  
  1735. Should alarm bells be going off here?
  1736.  
  1737. ELIZABETH NEUMANN: We are in the midst of a really volatile threat environment. Any time I see a gap in a system like we are seeing in this case, I do have concerns. Any time you have just a massive volume of people like we do, our systems are overwhelmed and we need more resources at the southern border to properly protect the homeland.
  1738.  
  1739. AINSLEY: And it follows our exclusive report last month that a migrant U.S. officials say was affiliated with an Afghan terror group crossed the border and was released into the U.S. because agents lacked information to connect him to the terror watchlist. That man, Mohamed Harwin was arrested hours after our report aired. The FBI director recently alerted Congress, the agencies investigating whether ISIS has a hand in smuggling migrants across the southern border.
  1740.  
  1741. CHRISTOPHER WRAY: There is a particular network that has -- where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we're very concerned about.
  1742.  
  1743. AINSLEY: Two U.S. officials tell NBC News DHS has not yet concluded that Attoev is part of ISIS, but they are questioning him in detention. A DHS spokesperson tells us he remains in U.S. custody and there is no threat to public safety. Lester.
  1744.  
  1745. HOLT: Ok. Julia. Thank you.
  1746.  
  1747.  
  1748.  </description>
  1749.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 11:29 PM</pubDate>
  1750.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  1751.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283990</guid>
  1752.    </item>
  1753. <item>
  1754.  <title>NewsBusters Podcast: The Lingo Games with 'Pro-Palestinian Protesters'</title>
  1755.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/05/01/newsbusters-podcast-lingo-games-pro-palestinian-protesters</link>
  1756.  <description> One of the ways you can always sense media bias is the terminology that the media elite decides to adopt en masse. Colleges are being occupied by "pro-Palestinian protesters," and you can't (accurately) call them "anti-Israel," not to mention "pro-Hamas." Liberals paint other liberals as pro-everything good, and the conservatives are anti-everything good. Anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-government, anti-tax. All of this is messaging, like advertising slogans.
  1757.  
  1758. This tendency is especially transparent on the "culture war" issues. Killing a baby is "abortion care." Seeking an amputation is "gender-affirming care." Florida adopting a six-week abortion ban is portrayed as very "restrictive." The media will use the word "protections" for whatever policies they support, like Democrats passing "protections for gender-affirming care." They'll call liberalized abortion law "protections," when the baby is clearly not protected. 
  1759.  
  1760. Reporters casually pass along that leftists call trans surgeries "life-saving." They'll even call abortions "life-saving." On the PBS NewsHour, they filed a story that used the term "gender-affirming care" ten times, and nowhere in the report did anyone take exception to that term or anything else the transgender lobby is seeking to accomplish. It wasn't surprising, given the expert in the segment was NPR health reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin, who has filed one-sided stories in favor of abortion and the abortion lobby.
  1761.  
  1762. Ex-NPR senior editor Uri Berliner appeared with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation and insisted “I think that really, NPR has a lot of soul searching to do about representing the country at large. Being a publicly funded news organization and really trying to represent this country in all its great diversity and viewpoints.” Berliner is no longer at NPR because almost no one in public radio believes that the taxpayer subsidies should encourage NPR to be fair and balanced. No one at NPR wants that, or if they do, they'll be sidelined like Berliner.
  1763.  
  1764. Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 
  1765.  
  1766. </description>
  1767.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 11:00 PM</pubDate>
  1768.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  1769.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283989</guid>
  1770.    </item>
  1771. <item>
  1772.  <title>Ex-NPR Editor: NPR Needs Some 'Soul-Searching' About Serving All Americans</title>
  1773.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/05/01/ex-npr-editor-npr-needs-some-soul-searching-about-serving-all</link>
  1774.  <description> Ex-NPR senior editor Uri Berliner appeared again on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation show on Tuesday night. “I think that really, NPR has a lot of soul searching to do about representing the country at large. Being a publicly funded news organization and really trying to represent this country in all its great diversity and viewpoints.”
  1775.  
  1776. It should seem obvious that NPR is impervious to "soul searching" since they didn't want Berliner to work there any more after he raised his questions about viewpoint diversity.
  1777.  
  1778. Cuomo asked about morning host Steve Inskeep and then other people at NPR saying Berliner "cherry-picked" his stories and got it wrong. "Do you think in retrospect that you should have done anything different?"
  1779.  
  1780. Berliner said no, "not at all. You know, I think even in our news in NPR newsroom, since the story was published, they've decided to institute regular reviews of coverage, which I think is a positive sign. I also think there's a conversation in this country that's happening within the media, but also more broadly about the really sad level of trust of the media and the extent to which narratives are imposed in newsrooms, whether they are legacy media and they're left leaning or whether they're coming from the right, and I think there's a large group of people that are tired of it, and are just calling out the media for doing things that are increasing the polarization in this country, so I don't regret -- I don't have any regrets.”
  1781.  
  1782.  
  1783.  
  1784.  
  1785.  
  1786. Cuomo said "I was moved that the media left this story alone," and they didn't want to have a real examination of NPR's content. "What does it mean for you going forward? "
  1787.  
  1788.  
  1789. BERLINER: Well, I you know, I think there was that there was some a lot of positive stories, including, interestingly, from college newspapers supporting what I said, and saying it's vital. And, you know, and from reporters and columnists around the country, and I would say this story lasted a lot longer than I expected it to. I thought, you know, I would write this and there would be pushback in the newsroom and it would be, you know, be over in a couple of days. You know, the head of the newsroom [Edith Chapin], criticized the story, I think she did it in a fairly respectful way, I was suspended five days without pay. I didn't object to that I didn't seek a grievance from the union. And I thought it was gonna go away after that.
  1790.  
  1791. But then the new CEO, Katherine Maher, she injected herself into the newsroom, and she attacked me publicly and personally, and I think that extended the story, especially when people started finding out more about her views, not just the tweets, you know about America, being addicted to white supremacy, or criticizing Hillary Clinton for using the words [inaudible]. More importantly, videos that surfaced where she talked about the First Amendment being a challenge and a tricky thing when you're trying to suppress information. This is when she was running, Wikimedia, which oversees Wikipedia. And I think that really extended the story a lot.”
  1792.  
  1793.  
  1794. Cuomo expressed amazement that the serious complaints within NPR were about wanting to take it further to the left, not further to the center. </description>
  1795.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 5:30 PM</pubDate>
  1796.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  1797.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283986</guid>
  1798.    </item>
  1799. <item>
  1800.  <title>Cuomo: Pro-Hamas Camps the ‘Intersection of Ignorance and Arrogance’</title>
  1801.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/05/01/cuomo-pro-hamas-camps-intersection-ignorance-and-arrogance</link>
  1802.  <description> NewsNation host Chris Cuomo was on a tear this week; using his prime-time show to call out the anti-Semitic/pro-Hamas extremists encamped on college campuses across the country. He called the encampments the “frightening intersection of ignorance and arrogance” and raised the legitimate concern that the students were being radicalized into doing something much worse than occupying a building.
  1803.  
  1804. In the hour before the NYPD busted up the encampment at Columbia University Tuesday night, Cuomo shared a soundbite from a press conference where one of the terrorist sympathizers demanded the administration give them food and water. “But this is like basic humanitarian aid asking for. Like, could people please have a glass of water?” the student whined.
  1805.  
  1806. Cuomo rubbed his face in frustration (above) and asked: “Seriously? Seriously? You want to break the law and then get catering?” He correctly diagnosed the problem as “privilege” and noted “she wasn't even aware of it.”
  1807.  
  1808. He argued that what we were seeing on these campuses was the “frightening intersection of ignorance and arrogance.” And speaking directly at the students, he called them out for wanting to “appropriate the suffering in Gaza as if that were you; just not the suffering part.”
  1809.  
  1810. “What happened to hunger strikes, getting arrested, taking a prosecution for the cause? Change doesn't come easy. Change doesn't come without cost,” he told them off. “You are being treated with kid gloves and you better hope it stays that way.”
  1811.  
  1812.  
  1813.  
  1814.  
  1815.  
  1816.  
  1817.  
  1818.  
  1819.  
  1820. On Monday, Cuomo struck a similar tone when he called out the cowardly students for hiding their faces when they claimed their cause was so just:
  1821.  
  1822.  
  1823. Who put them in this position? The kids should offer up their names. Don't hide behind the scarves. You want the light? Take the heat! Own it! Be accountable for your outrage. There’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah. You may get thrown out of school. What matters if it's a genocide? Right? If ‘we are Hamas,’ right? Don't hide!
  1824.  
  1825.  
  1826. “Give up your parents’ names,” he also demanded. “‘Oh, they shouldn't have to answer for me.’ The Hell they shouldn't. I got one of you. If my kid was running around on campus doing what you guys are doing, I'd be answering for it. I promise you that.”
  1827.  
  1828. The focus stayed on what the pro-Hamas students were capable of and Cuomo feared their radicalism could drive them to do things far worse. He recalled the case of John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban. “Well-to-do, converted to Islam as a teenager, went overseas, became radicalized, wound up helping terror organizations,” Cuomo recalled. “How do we know that people aren’t being radicalized today that it ends on campus? How do we know?”
  1829.  
  1830. Cuomo cautioned that social media – particularly TikTok – was to blame for how Generation Z has seemingly taken up the banner of Radical Islam in mass. “We never had people shouting ‘We are the Taliban’ after 9/11…We didn't have social media, but we didn't have whoever is guiding these things and funding these things being as active, as well-equipped, and as effective as they are right now,” he said.
  1831.  
  1832. The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
  1833.  
  1834.  
  1835. NewsNation’s Cuomo
  1836. April 29, 2024
  1837. 8:07:50 p.m. eastern
  1838.  
  1839. CHRIS CUOMO: Who put them in this position? The kids should offer up their names. Don't hide behind the scarves. You want the light? Take the heat! Own it! Be accountable for your outrage. There’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah. You may get thrown out of school. What matters if it's a genocide? Right? If ‘we are Hamas,’ right? Don't hide!
  1840.  
  1841. Give up your parents’ names. “Oh, they shouldn't have to answer for me.” The Hell they shouldn't. I got one of you. If my kid was running around on campus doing what you guys are doing, I'd be answering for it. I promise you that. That's my kid. Doesn't matter how old you are. You're not paying your way there. You're under somebody else's roof, somebody else's influence. And it's time they step up.
  1842.  
  1843. And the people who are funding these protests. Where are you? Where are the organizations? The invisible hand that is motivating what we're seeing on social media, who is it, where are they? Where's the investigative reporting on that? This has to be exposed.
  1844.  
  1845. And to the parents and to the people out there who say, “Hey look, these kids are angry, we saw it during BLM, it's going to be summer. This will dissipate. They're going to go home to their internships and all the other bull – B – you know, stuff they do.” Maybe, maybe not. I'll tell you why. I don't see it that way.
  1846.  
  1847. My last point. Three words for you. That is a lesson from the past that I don't know that we learned judging by what I'm seeing right now. Johnnie Walker Lindh. Look them up; L-I-N-D-H. Young kid, I forget where he grew up. Maybe California, something like that. Well-to-do, converted to Islam as a teenager, went overseas, became radicalized, wound up helping terror organizations. Put in prison 17 years. Got out a few years earl, everybody got angry about it.
  1848.  
  1849. How do we know that people aren’t being radicalized today that it ends on campus? How do we know? We never had people shouting “We are the Taliban” after 9/11. Right? Do you remember that? Are you old enough to remember? If not, not Google it. We didn't have social media, but we didn't have whoever is guiding these things and funding these things being as active, as well-equipped, and as effective as they are right now. How do you know it ends with talk?
  1850.  
  1851. (…)
  1852.  
  1853. April 30, 2024
  1854. 8:03:34 p.m. Eastern
  1855.  
  1856. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER: But this is like basic humanitarian aid asking for. Like, could people please have a glass of water?
  1857.  
  1858. CUOMO: [Rubs face in frustration] Seriously? Seriously? You want to break the law and then get catering? You talk about privilege. And she wasn't even aware of it. That is frightening intersection of ignorance and arrogance. You want to appropriate the suffering in Gaza as if that were you; just not the suffering part.
  1859.  
  1860. What happened to hunger strikes, getting arrested, taking a prosecution for the cause? Change doesn't come easy. Change doesn't come without cost. Go look at what happened during BLM. How blacks and their allies were treated when they destroyed property. And that was in poor areas, let alone some fancy place like a rich college campus.
  1861.  
  1862. You are being treated with kid gloves and you better hope it stays that way.
  1863.  
  1864. (…)
  1865. </description>
  1866.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 4:44 PM</pubDate>
  1867.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  1868.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283985</guid>
  1869.    </item>
  1870. <item>
  1871.  <title>Nets Catch the Sads for Florida Curbing ‘Abortion Care’, Cheer It as ‘Key’ to 2024</title>
  1872.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/05/01/nets-catch-sads-florida-curbing-abortion-care-cheer-it-key-2024</link>
  1873.  <description>On Wednesday, the “big three’ of ABC, CBS, and NBC had full stories on their flagship morning news shows to reiterate their joy over Biden regime being so “eager” to make “abortion care” “front and center in the fight for the White House” and “drive voters to the polls” with the latest case being the focus on Florida’s six-week pro-life law being “one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States.”
  1874.  
  1875. As these round-ups usually go, ABC’s Good Morning America was the giddiest thanks to the team of co-host/former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos and chief White House correspondent/chief Biden apple polisher Mary Bruce.
  1876.  
  1877. “Abortion rights fight. As Florida’s six week ban takes effect this morning, President Biden puts the issue front and center in the fight for the White House,” Stephanopoulos boasted in an opening tease.
  1878.  
  1879. Later on with the chyron reading in part “Abortion Showdown Takes Center Stage”, Bruce gushed that her friends are “eager to put the issue of abortion front and center in this campaign, and today, sending the Vice President, Kamala Harris — t heir chief messenger on this — down to Florida”.
  1880.  
  1881.  
  1882.  
  1883.  
  1884.  
  1885.  
  1886.  
  1887.  
  1888.  
  1889. Bruce made sure to highlight Trump’s Time magazine interview and that gotcha question about states surveilling pregnant women and even did her President a solid by not playing a campaign video released overnight and instead reading a portion herself (since it’s littered with jump cuts thanks to Biden’s inability to string together coherent thoughts).
  1890.  
  1891. “[T]he Biden campaign is hoping all of this will drive voters to the polls for them in November,” she later concluded, to which fill-in co-host Gio Benitez conurred it’s “[a] major issue to be sure.”
  1892.  
  1893. Over on NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie called Florida’s law an “abortion showdown” in a tease and said NBC will get into “[w]hat it means for millions of women” (as opposed to babies).
  1894.  
  1895. During a segment about the raging anti-Semites creating chaos on college campuses, White House correspondent Peter Alexander told Guthrie they’ve distracted voters “away from the issues the Democrats want to talk about, issues like reproductive rights, issues more broadly about health care” and the Trump indictments.
  1896.  
  1897. NBC then did the Biden team a solid by talking about what they want. Co-host Hoda Kotb relayed that abortion was “front and center today” (says who?) “as one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States takes effect in Florida.”
  1898.  
  1899. Correspondent Marissa Para bemoaned the lack of access for “abortion care” in the Sunshine State and only footnoted the pro-life cause with sound from one of the law’s state House sponsors (who correctly declared “abortion is not health care”) (click “expand”):
  1900.  
  1901.  
  1902. PARA: Clinics like the one you see behind me have been preparing for today. Today is day one of Florida’s new law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and the vast majority of cases with some exceptions for things like incest and rape. But with former President Trump making controversial new comments to issue, Hoda, we are already seeing how much abortion rights will play a role come November. This morning, an abortion ban with ripples far beyond the Sunshine State.
  1903.  
  1904. PRO-BABY KILLERS: Our body, our choice!
  1905.  
  1906. PARA: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, states began to form their own rules. Many women from surrounding states in the south, which have the strictest rules in the country, traveled to Florida seeking abortion care. Florida, now banning the procedure before most women know they are pregnant. Starting today, the closest drivable options for abortion care are North Carolina and Virginia. Florida clinics like A Woman’s World in Ft. Pierce have been working overtime, trying to squeeze in every patient over six weeks pregnant before it became a felony to do so.
  1907.  
  1908.  A WOMAN’S WORLD MEDICAL CENTER OWNER CANDACE DYE: Last week, the phones were crazy. We couldn’t answer the phones fast enough.
  1909.  
  1910. PARA: Supporters of the ban point out the law has exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, and life of the mother. State Rep Mike Beltran, one of the bill’s sponsors, says the days of what he calls “abortion tourism” from other states are over.
  1911.  
  1912. FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE MIKE BELTRAN (R): Abortion is not health care. There are many countries where abortion is illegal or more restrictive than the Florida rules.
  1913.  
  1914.  
  1915. CBS Mornings also checked the box. Fill-in co-host Jericka Duncan teased in the Eye Opener a report on “Florida’s new restrictive abortion law tak[ing] effect today” and words from “ Florida doctor who’s bracing for the fallout.”
  1916.  
  1917. Co-host Nate Burleson had the open to said segment: “A new abortion law goes into effect today in Florida, sharply restricting the procedure after six weeks before many women know that they are pregnant. That means almost every state in the south has severe limits on abortion In most, it’s nearly outlawed.”
  1918.  
  1919. Political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns decried Florida putting to a stop the “influx of patients from out of state as it was one of the last remaining places in this region with fewer restrictions” and made an abortionist the focus of her piece (click “expand”):
  1920.  
  1921.  
  1922. DR. SHELLY TIEN: There’s fear. There’s uncertainty.
  1923.  
  1924. HUEY-BURNS: Jacksonville Dr. Shelly Tien stood ready to see patients until the stroke of midnight when Florida’s six-week abortion ban was set to take effect.
  1925.  
  1926. TIEN: It is, in essence, a total and a complete abortion ban.
  1927.  
  1928. HUEY-BURNS [TO TIEN]: As a physician, what is it like for you operating under these circumstances?
  1929.  
  1930. TIEN: Sure, you know — and I — I think, you know, certainly, it’s — it’s stressful. We see physicians that are scared to take care of basic issues and we’ve seen patients turned away from emergency rooms, delivering in public floor bathrooms. I mean, really, really awful, scenarios.
  1931.  
  1932. HUEY-BURNS: Florida’s new law includes exceptions for rape, intest, fetal abnormalities, and life of the mother.
  1933.  
  1934. FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE DEAN BLACK (R): It’s a victory.
  1935.  
  1936. HUEY-BURNS: State Republican lawmaker Dean Black voted for the six-week ban.
  1937.  
  1938. BLACK: We think we have a good law, a compassionate law, a moral law. It can serve as a guide for other states.
  1939.  
  1940.  
  1941. After quoting Trump’s comments about surveilling women and an excerpt of the Biden ad (which featured three jump cuts for two sentences), Huey-Burns touted Florida as some sort of battleground as the pro-life law “has attracted the attention of the Biden campaign” with Vice President Kamala Harris flocking to Jacksonville “as part of her nationwide reproductive freedom tour.”
  1942.  
  1943. To see the relevant transcripts from May 1, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).</description>
  1944.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 4:26 PM</pubDate>
  1945.    <dc:creator>Curtis Houck</dc:creator>
  1946.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283984</guid>
  1947.    </item>
  1948. <item>
  1949.  <title>Major Government Entity Follows US Lead Against Infamous CCP-Tied App</title>
  1950.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/catherine-salgado/2024/05/01/major-government-entity-follows-us-lead-against</link>
  1951.  <description>The European Union is the latest government entity to ponder canceling a Chinese government-tied app.
  1952.  
  1953. Soon after President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok a choice between Chinese divestment and a ban in the U.S., European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took up the same question, according to Politico EU. Asked about the possibility of a TikTok ban during a European Union (EU) candidate debate, von der Leyen replied, “It is not excluded.” This comes as TikTok already faces multiple EU probes.
  1954.  
  1955. Von der Leyen then bragged that the Commission had been “the very first institution worldwide to ban TikTok on our corporate phones,” adding, “We know exactly the danger of TikTok.” Other candidates at the debate did not commit either way, Politico reported. The outlet also noted that von der Leyen has avoided using the app during her campaign.
  1956.  
  1957. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) owns a board seat and maintains a financial stake in TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance, and multiple reports claim data sharing with Chinese employees, raising security concerns.
  1958.  
  1959. Both the EU and TikTok have an anti-free speech record, but TikTok’s Communist China ties could still land it in even more hot water in Europe. Politico noted two EU probes into TikTok. The first regarded a feature rewarding users who interacted with the TikTok Lite app. The Digital Services Act (DSA) probe triggered TikTok’s suspension of the feature.
  1960.  
  1961. Another probe under the DSA is reportedly investigating whether or not TikTok failed to protect minors on the app. This probe could have a final penalty of temporary suspension of the app.
  1962.  
  1963. Conservatives are under attack. Contact TikTok via email at communitymanager@tiktok.com and demand Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and provide transparency. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.</description>
  1964.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 4:23 PM</pubDate>
  1965.    <dc:creator>Catherine Salgado</dc:creator>
  1966.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283983</guid>
  1967.    </item>
  1968. <item>
  1969.  <title>Nationalists of the World, Unite?</title>
  1970.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/daniel-mccarthy/2024/05/01/nationalists-world-unite</link>
  1971.  <description>The historian John Lukacs used to say all the old “isms” of politics were defunct.
  1972.  
  1973. They’ve become “wasms,” except one — nationalism.
  1974.  
  1975. Lukacs died five years ago, but the relentless anti-Israel protests on America’s campuses today testify to the truth of his insight.
  1976.  
  1977. So does the attempt by authorities in the capital of the European Union bureaucracy to quash a “National Conservatism” conference two weeks ago.
  1978.  
  1979. The mayor of Brussels was quick to order police to shut down the conference that brought speakers such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Brexit mastermind Nigel Farage to his city.
  1980.  
  1981. Naturally, he claimed he was only doing this to protect everyone from the threat of radical protesters wreaking havoc on the conference and city alike — as if preemptively censoring National Conservatives with government power was the only alternative to letting violent leftists silence them through private intimidation.
  1982.  
  1983. Yet some might wonder why a “National” Conservative conference was being held in Brussels in the first place, with a distinctly multinational lineup of speakers from Britain, Poland, Hungary, France, the United States and elsewhere.
  1984.  
  1985. Critics of National Conservatism — both the conference and the coalition associated with it since the first “NatCon” gathering in Washington, D.C., in 2019 — have often claimed there’s a contradiction in nationalists from different nations working together.
  1986.  
  1987. Isn’t that really internationalism?
  1988.  
  1989. The founder of the National Conservatism conference, the American-Israeli intellectual Yoram Hazony, answered that in the closing chapter of his 2018 book “The Virtue of Nationalism.”
  1990.  
  1991. There he relates how in the aftermath of World War II — a conflict widely seen as originating in nationalism, though Hazony finds it a product of imperialism instead — two opposing responses to the problem of aggression arose.
  1992.  
  1993. The European intelligentsia, and eventually many educated Americans as well, chose to reject nationalism in principle and place their hopes in new international institutions: the United Nations, the European Union and the abstract “international community,” as well as what’s now called the “liberal international order.”
  1994.  
  1995. The other response was to reaffirm a defensive and lawful nationalism, above all the effort to create a Jewish state — Zionism.
  1996.  
  1997. Hazony came to perceive the continuing growth of anti-nationalist ideology in elite European and American institutions (including our colleges and universities) as a long-term existential threat to Israel.
  1998.  
  1999. Zionism is a form of nationalism, and if all nationalism is bad, then Zionism must also be rejected by the international community and the well-credentialed Westerners who think of themselves as its leaders.
  2000.  
  2001. Yet the opposite was really true; if Israel was to survive as a nation-state, defenders of the Jewish state would have to affirm not only Zionism but nationalism in general.
  2002.  
  2003. And Israel’s best allies wouldn’t be liberal internationalists but rather nationalist conservatives in different places.
  2004.  
  2005. Even in democratic Western nations that fought the Nazis in World War II, such as Britain and the United States, liberals demonized nationalist-minded conservatives as bigots of every kind: xenophobes, racists and, of course, antisemites.
  2006.  
  2007. Hazony recognized that the greater antisemitic danger now came from the left — the radical activists in the streets and the genteel bureaucrats in control of institutions like the European Union and U.N. agencies.
  2008.  
  2009. His vision has been vindicated in the years since he published “The Virtue of Nationalism”:
  2010.  
  2011. Not only has the left shown its antisemitic as well as anti-Zionist inclinations, but the nationalist right in much of Europe and elsewhere has proved to be strongly supportive of Israel in its time of crisis.
  2012.  
  2013. Nationalist leaders such as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, not to mention Donald Trump and Hungary’s Orban, are staunchly pro-Israel.
  2014.  
  2015. Just as important, in Hazony’s analysis, they are in favor of the nationalist principle that makes Israel possible.
  2016.  
  2017. On the other side of the ledger, the same frenzied students and cold-blooded bureaucrats who think Israel is worse than Hamas think Western nations are exceptionally wicked in comparison to the rest of the world.
  2018.  
  2019. Today’s protests against Israel are part of a larger campaign against the nation-state itself: against national borders, sovereignty, the right of self-defense, cultural continuity and assimilation, and well-defined citizenship.
  2020.  
  2021. Leftists long for a post-national world of administrative zones — not nations in any meaningful sense — overseen by enlightened experts whose authority doesn’t rest on the consent of any specific people, but who are ritualistically maintained in office by a well-managed fluid voting pool of identity constituencies and broken individuals.
  2022.  
  2023. The French political scientist Pierre Manent argues that without nations, without some specific people in a particular place, there can be no democracy.
  2024.  
  2025. Nationalism has its defects, and National Conservatism may not always remedy them.
  2026.  
  2027. But if there’s going to be any democracy in the 21st century — in America, Europe, Israel or anywhere — there must be nations and nationalists willing to stand for them.
  2028.  
  2029. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. To read more by Daniel McCarthy, visit www.creators.com</description>
  2030.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 3:30 PM</pubDate>
  2031.    <dc:creator>Daniel McCarthy</dc:creator>
  2032.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283964</guid>
  2033.    </item>
  2034. <item>
  2035.  <title>Birth Control Pill Linked to Life-Threatening Complication</title>
  2036.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/05/01/birth-control-pill-linked-life-threatening</link>
  2037.  <description> Wait  -so Big Pharma isn’t right all the time?
  2038.  
  2039. After taking a birth control pill with progesterone, an Illinois woman began bleeding from her backside which almost took her life. This is the pill that is promoted by the same people who think abortion is safe.
  2040.  
  2041. The patient’s pain became increasingly worse after taking the pills for only two months. She had terrible “cramps, debilitating nausea, and blood diarrhea,” The Daily Mail indicated. After three weeks of intense pain, she went to the emergency room and was “diagnosed with ischemic colitis, which is most often caused by increased blood clotting in the abdomen and intestines.”
  2042.  
  2043. Doctors who treated the woman indicated that this was only the second case of its kind that they’d seen and that without circulation, parts of the bowl can die and therefore, the patient can too.
  2044.  
  2045. Daily Mail linked to a recent study which concluded that the pill the woman was taking could lead to increased risk of blood clotting. Doctors told the patient to go off of the birth control pill and her symptoms improved in roughly two weeks.
  2046.  
  2047. “IC [Ischemic colitis] predominantly affects young women, who are on hormonal contraceptives, particularly estrogen, being implicated,” the study indicated. It also brought up another case where a similar thing happened and concluded that while much more research is needed to confirm, it’s likely that the birth control pill contributed to the IC.
  2048.  
  2049.  
  2050. Our case presents a unique scenario of biopsy-confirmed IC after the use of a progesterone-only contraceptive, the second documented case as per our literature review. The first case, reported in 1972 by Martin D. Gelfand, involved a multiparous woman experiencing abdominal cramping, bloody stools, and rectosigmoid erythema after initiating Depo-Provera, a progesterone-only contraceptive. In cases of contraceptive-induced IC, patients typically recover after discontinuing the hormonal contraceptive. Similarly, our patient had complete resolution of her symptoms within a few weeks of ceasing the medication.
  2051.  
  2052.  
  2053. The sad part is, these types of pills are promoted and praised throughout many feminist groups and outlets. Planned Parenthood promotes the pill so it can make money  - but rarely, if ever, warns about the repercussions. 
  2054.  
  2055. As the left tries to cover up any adverse side effects of these pills, TikTok has recently begun censoring videos that warn about those side effects. In an MRCTV article published last month, TikTok reportedly took down numerous videos that talked about women who developed severe hormonal imbalances, had a weakened sex drive, developed depression, gained weight, had heart issues, had issues with fertility later on and many more from the birth control pill. TikTok also removed advertisements for a detox regime from a wellness group called “28” who wanted to help women detox from the harmful chemicals of the birth control pill.
  2056.  
  2057. With censorship like that, it’s likely the story of the poor woman who ended up in the hospital will not reach mainstream media.
  2058.  
  2059. God forbid anyone’s actually informed about their health.</description>
  2060.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 3:07 PM</pubDate>
  2061.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  2062.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283982</guid>
  2063.    </item>
  2064. <item>
  2065.  <title>MSNBC Blames 'Bad Faith' GOP For Campus Chaos</title>
  2066.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/05/01/msnbc-blames-bad-faith-gop-campus-chaos</link>
  2067.  <description>Princeton professor and MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude Jr. joined the Wednesday edition of Ana Cabrera Reports to discuss the chaos on college campuses. In Glaude’s upside down view of the world, it is not the anti-Semitic campers who are the problem, they just “want a better America,” but the “bad faith” Republicans condemning school administrations for tolerating it.
  2068.  
  2069. Cabrera wondered, “I am curious, though, as to how you see these protests, Eddie, through a broader lens. Some have compared these college campus demonstrations to protests during the Vietnam War. Do you think that's an accurate comparison?”
  2070.  
  2071.  
  2072.  
  2073.  
  2074.  
  2075.  
  2076.  
  2077.  
  2078.  
  2079. The correct answer would have been, “No, that's ridiculous. There is no draft directly affecting these students and groups leading this, like Students for Justice in Palestine, are not anti-war, they are pro-war, just pro-the other side that happens to be losing.”
  2080.  
  2081. That is not the answer Glaude gave, however. Instead, he went all in on the cult of youth:
  2082.  
  2083. Well, you want to reach for the familiar in order to understand the current moment, and I get that, but I want us to -- I want us to view these protests within the context of our current moment, the current geopolitical context and that is we're in a period where our politics are heightened, that the conflicts within the country where it feels as if we're at each other's throats, these young people have concluded, many of them that America in so many ways is broken and they've come of age in so many ways, not only in terms of how-- we might describe them, Ana, as the catastrophic generation.
  2084.  
  2085. He added, “They've come of age in the midst of school shootings, in the midst of economic collapse, in the midst of a pandemic, over a million folks are dead. So, these folks are arguing for a better America, a better world, and then they're witnessing the horror of Gaza. Even with the horror of October 7th, they're witnessing the horror of the consequences.”
  2086.  
  2087. As a young person, the author feels compelled to add that young people in America today have never had to fight a world war (or any war for that matter, those who have gone to war were part of an all-volunteer force), never protested anything remotely close to Jim Crow, and have been blessed with tremendous advancements in medical care and technology (the author is very grateful for phone-based GPS). They are obsessing over one and only one conflict. They are not condemning China’s actual genocide of the Uyghurs. Every generation, past, present, and future has its own foreign policy crises and times of economic turmoil.
  2088.  
  2089. Still, Glaude determined Republicans were the real problem, “let's be clear and just really quickly, Elise Stefanik, Republicans in the Congress are bad faith actors in this debate, and they're driving this and administrators should understand when they respond to them, these bad actors will eventually turn only them. We see this with the president of Columbia, they urged her to act in a certain way, she acted and they still called for her resignation. We need to understand our charge as educators and live that charge in relation to our students, not in the political climate of our current moment.”
  2090.  
  2091. It is Glaude who is acting in bad faith because she only acted after she let the situation get out of hand.
  2092.  
  2093. Here is a transcript for the May 1 show:
  2094.  
  2095.  
  2096. MSNBC Ana Cabrera Reports
  2097.  
  2098. 5/1/2024
  2099.  
  2100. 10:13 AM ET
  2101.  
  2102. ANA CABRERA: I am curious, though, as to how you see these protests, Eddie, through a broader lens. Some have compared these college campus demonstrations to protests during the Vietnam War. Do you think that's an accurate comparison?
  2103.  
  2104. EDDIE GLUADE JR.: Well, you want to reach for the familiar in order to understand the current moment, and I get that, but I want us to -- I want us to view these protests within the context of our current moment, the current geopolitical context and that is we're in a period where our politics are heightened, that the conflicts within the country where it feels as if we're at each other's throats, these young people have concluded, many of them that America in so many ways is broken and they've come of age in so many ways, not only in terms of how-- we might describe them, Ana, as the catastrophic generation.
  2105.  
  2106. They've come of age in the midst of school shootings, in the midst of economic collapse, in the midst of a pandemic, over a million folks are dead. So, these folks are arguing for a better America, a better world, and then they're witnessing the horror of Gaza. 
  2107.  
  2108. Even with the horror of October 7th, they're witnessing the horror of the consequences and let's be clear and just really quickly, Elise Stefanik, Republicans in the Congress are bad faith actors in this debate, and they're driving this and administrators should understand when they respond to them, these bad actors will eventually turn only them. We see this with the president of Columbia, they urged her to act in a certain way, she acted and they still called for her resignation. We need to understand our charge as educators and live that charge in relation to our students, not in the political climate of our current moment.
  2109. </description>
  2110.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 2:37 PM</pubDate>
  2111.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  2112.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283981</guid>
  2113.    </item>
  2114. <item>
  2115.  <title>Networks WHINE About Columbia’s Pro-Hamas Camp Getting Busted By NYPD</title>
  2116.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/05/01/networks-whine-about-columbias-pro-hamas-camp-getting-busted</link>
  2117.  <description> Overnight, the anti-Semitic/pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia University was finally broken up after the NYPD outsmarted the barricaded protesters by breaching the second floor of occupied Hamilton Hall. But on Wednesday morning, the whining from ABC, CBS, and NBC was almost as bad as the shrieking coming from the terrorist sympathizers as they recounted the horror of the 100 people arrested without injury being loaded onto a bus for booking.
  2118.  
  2119. “We were standing right here late last night as more than 100 police officers descended on Columbia University,” announced ABC correspondent Stephanie Ramos on Good Morning America. She seemingly tried to downplay the illegal break-in and occupation of Hamilton Hall by noting it’s “a building with a history of student takeovers.”
  2120.  
  2121. Ramos spoke to a ridiculous college professor who didn’t even work at Columbia (she worked at Queens College) who praised the students for breaking the law to help stop a purported “genocide in Gaza”:
  2122.  
  2123.  
  2124. RAMOS: What were your thoughts about those student demonstrators that pitched tents and set up that encampment demanding that the university divest from companies profiting from Israel? What are your thoughts on that?
  2125.  
  2126. SUSAN BARANOWSKI: So, the students believe passionately in this cause and they're willing to break the all rules and risk sanctions to draw attention to the genocide in Gaza. And they are willing to come out here even though the university is punishing them for doing so.
  2127.  
  2128.  
  2129.  
  2130.  
  2131.  
  2132.  
  2133.  
  2134.  
  2135.  
  2136.  
  2137. There seemed to be a bit of emotion in the voice of correspondent Lilia Luciano during CBS Mornings. She recalled how she “saw dozens upon dozens of protesters in zip ties taken into city and police buses as their peers, protesters, and even faculty members cheered them on from the outside.”
  2138.  
  2139. Luciano sounded as though she was taken aback by the “Dozens of NYPD officers in riot gear” entering the university “through locked gates, others seen here coming through a second-floor window of the building occupied by demonstrators Tuesday night.”
  2140.  
  2141. She promoted an unnamed professor who was “upset” by the scene and who falsely asserted that “the military” had stormed campus to take the kids away:
  2142.  
  2143.  
  2144. LUCIANO: Many faculty members were outside like this professor we spoke to who was visibly upset over seeing so many students handcuffed.
  2145.  
  2146. UNIDENTIFIED PROFESSOR: I'm devastated that this is happening to every single campus in this country! By letting the military in, letting the police in! These are just students!
  2147.  
  2148.  
  2149. Over on NBC’s Today, correspondent Erin McLaughlin huffed that “dozens of police dressed in full riot gear entered the campus;” and touted that “Crowds gathered outside of the university chanting and booing.”
  2150.  
  2151. After griping about the “SWAT-style truck” used to circumvent the barricaded doors of the first floor and the 100 people taken into custody, McLaughlin played the now infamous clip of a Columbia student demanding the university give them “basic humanitarian aid” so they don’t “die of dehydration and starvation.”
  2152.  
  2153. Instead of laughing at it as most sensible people did, since it was ridiculous, McLaughlin treated it as a serious matter. And the chyron for the report read "police clash with college protesters" despite the fact the students were the aggressors who were breaking the law and threatening Jewish students.
  2154.  
  2155. The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
  2156.  
  2157.  
  2158. ABC’s Good Morning America
  2159. May 1, 2024
  2160. 7:03:17 a.m. Eastern
  2161.  
  2162. (…)
  2163.  
  2164. STEPHANIE RAMOS: We were standing right here late last night as more than 100 police officers descended on Columbia University. Police clearing Hamilton Hall, which is right behind us, a building with a history of student takeovers.
  2165.  
  2166. [Cuts to video]
  2167.  
  2168. Overnight, hundreds of New York City police officers in riot gear moving into Columbia University. SWAT teams rolling in, one-by-one police officers seen filing in on an extended ramp into the second floor of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall.
  2169.  
  2170. In the late night hours, police forming a line around the perimeter, clearing protesters, blocking the entrance. Once inside, going floor-by-floor, room-by-room. NYPD using flash banks.
  2171.  
  2172. At least 100 people arrested, led away, hands tied behind their backs with zip ties and loaded onto a police bus. The university president allowing the NYPD to move in, saying the group who broke into the building includes students but led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university, and that the administration was left with no choice.
  2173.  
  2174. (…)
  2175.  
  2176. 7:05:08 a.m. Eastern
  2177.  
  2178. RAMOS: What were your thoughts about those student demonstrators that pitched tents and set up that encampment demanding that the university divest from companies profiting from Israel. What are your thoughts on that?
  2179.  
  2180. SUSAN BARANOWSKI: So, the students believe passionately in this cause and they're willing to break the all rules and risk sanctions to draw attention to the genocide in Gaza. And they are willing to come out here even though the university is punishing them for doing so.
  2181.  
  2182. (…)
  2183.  
  2184.  
  2185.  
  2186. CBS Mornings
  2187. May 1, 2024
  2188. 7:04:28 a.m. Eastern
  2189.  
  2190. (…)
  2191.  
  2192. LILIA LUCIANO: Yesterday, before police showed up here at Columbia, students received a shelter-in-place warning. Hours later, we saw dozens upon dozens of protesters in zip ties taken into city and police buses as their peers, protesters, and even faculty members cheered them on from the outside.
  2193.  
  2194. [Cuts to video]
  2195.  
  2196. Dozens of NYPD officers in riot gear entered Columbia University around 9:00 p.m. Some through locked gates, others seen here coming through a second-floor window of the building occupied by demonstrators Tuesday night.
  2197.  
  2198. The officers entered Hamilton Hall at the request of the university. Inside police cleared barricades, conducted multiple arrests, eventually clearing the building. Police also began clearing the tent encampment that had been the symbol of the protests on campus for nearly two weeks.
  2199.  
  2200. Then NYPD moved further north in Harlem toward a city college campus. We were there when dozens of officers breached a gate to clear the encampment and began arresting protesters.
  2201.  
  2202. Dozens more students were loaded onto city buses and detained by the end of the night. Many faculty members were outside like this professor we spoke to who was visibly upset over seeing so many students handcuffed.
  2203.  
  2204. UNIDENTIFIED PROFESSOR: I'm devastated that this is happening to every single campus in this country! By letting the military in, letting the police in! These are just students!
  2205.  
  2206. (…)
  2207.  
  2208.  
  2209.  
  2210. NBC’s Today
  2211. May 1, 2024
  2212. 7:03:50 a.m. Eastern
  2213.  
  2214. (…)
  2215.  
  2216. ERIN MCLAUGHLIN: The NYPD says it took them nearly two hours to clear Columbia University of protesters. I was there overnight as dozens of police dressed in full riot gear entered the campus. Crowds gathered outside of the university chanting and booing. This morning, police say more than 200 were arrested.
  2217.  
  2218. [Cuts to video]
  2219.  
  2220. Overnight, in New York City, a tense drama unfolding at Columbia University. Police in riot gear swiftly taking back a building occupied by antiwar protesters. NYPD officers using a SWAT- style truck to enter Hamilton hall by force.
  2221.  
  2222. UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: The building was very heavily fortified.
  2223.  
  2224. MCLAUGHLIN: Police video showing officers clearing the building, eventually taking about 100 people into custody.
  2225.  
  2226. (…)
  2227.  
  2228. 7:05:38 a.m. Eastern
  2229.  
  2230. MCLAUGHLIN: Students there, before the police came in, asking Columbia to allow food into the building.
  2231.  
  2232. UNIDENTIFED PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER: Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation?
  2233.  
  2234. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So, it seems like you’re saying, ‘we wanted to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building. Now, will you please bring us food and water.’
  2235.  
  2236. UNIDENTIFED PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER: Nobody is asking them to bring anything we're asking them to not violently stop us from bringing in basic humanitarian aid.
  2237.  
  2238. (…)
  2239. </description>
  2240.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 1:12 PM</pubDate>
  2241.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  2242.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283978</guid>
  2243.    </item>
  2244. <item>
  2245.  <title>EXCLUSIVE: Unearthed Emails Show Legacy Media Cozying Up to Disgraced Censorship Group</title>
  2246.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/luis-cornelio/2024/05/01/exclusive-unearthed-emails-show-legacy-media-cozying</link>
  2247.  <description>FIRST ON MRC: Never-before-seen emails reveal how several legacy media outlets closely aligned themselves with a disgraced censorship entity, accused of leading the censorship of Republicans and conservatives on social media.
  2248.  
  2249. Documents reviewed by MRC Free Speech America indicate that certain leftist, legacy media outlets — including The Washington Post, The Guardian, ABC News, NBC News, Vice and others — collaborated closely with the anti-free speech Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a now-defunct consortium of researchers and universities with ties to government agencies and embroiled in censorship controversies.
  2250.  
  2251. Stanford University’s Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), along with the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, led the effort to launch the EIP. 
  2252.  
  2253. Tellingly, the EIP was created “at the request of” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and “worked directly with” the DHS and the State Department’s Global Engagement Center to “monitor and censor Americans’ online speech” before the 2020 elections, according to the House Judiciary Committee.
  2254.  
  2255. In response to these emails, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) called on the federal government to defund the massive web of anti-free speech entities, infamously known as the Censorship Industrial Complex.
  2256.  
  2257. “We’ve obtained the secret reports showing how the Election Integrity Partnership worked closely with Big Tech to censor thousands of Americans,” Jordan said. “Other documents confirm that the EIP was created ‘at the request of’ the federal government. In other words, Big Tech, Big Academia, and Big Government teamed up to censor Americans before the 2020 election.”
  2258.  
  2259. The emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request investigation by government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), suggest that the legacy media blindly relied on the EIP to reinforce their anti-free speech narratives. “It’s disappointing and, frankly, a little frightening that media outlets have taken up full membership in the Censorship Industrial Complex,” PPT President Michael Chamberlain told MRC Free Speech America.
  2260.  
  2261. Little has been reported or known about the extent of the media’s involvement with the disgraced censorship group — at least until now.
  2262.  
  2263. The Washington Post Calls Anti-Free Speech Researchers ‘My Fave People’
  2264.  
  2265. In one instance, Elizabeth Dwoskin, a Silicon Valley correspondent for The Washington Post, referred to EIP leader Alex Stamos, a former chief security officer at Facebook, and Stanford researcher Renée DiResta, as her “fave people” in an email dated April 1, 2022.
  2266.  
  2267.  
  2268.  
  2269. According to the email, Dwoskin contacted EIP to propose “a potentially powerful collaboration” concerning alleged “disinfo” in the 2022 midterm elections. 
  2270.  
  2271. The proposed collaboration, dubbed "The Megaphone Project," aimed to track individuals who raised questions about the 2020 elections and whether they still had platforms in the 2022 midterm elections.
  2272.  
  2273. “What platforms are they using? Do they still have the megaphones they had in 2020? What are they saying in the run-up to 2022?” Dwoskin asked Stamos and DiResta. 
  2274.  
  2275. Whether “The Megaphone Project” was initiated remains unknown. However, the proposal raises concerns about the impartiality of The Post's reporter, said MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider.
  2276.  
  2277. “It is sickening that The Post sought to create a hit list against people who simply wanted to exercise their free speech rights,” Schneider said. “In the past, leftists have also done the same thing. Did The Post ever produce a similar blacklist? We doubt it. This only proves the legacy media are nothing but arms of the Democrat Party.”
  2278.  
  2279. Dwoskin did not immediately respond to MRC Free Speech America’s request for comment.
  2280.  
  2281. ABC News Mourns Rise of Parler: ‘Will We Ever Stop Misinformation?’
  2282.  
  2283. In another instance showcasing how legacy media outlets leaned on EIP to promote their anti-free speech agenda, ABC News reporter Laura Romero emailed professor and EIP mastermind Kate Starbird on Nov. 11, 2020, seeking comment regarding Parler, a pro-free speech platform.
  2284.  
  2285. Rather than simply requesting Starbird's expert analysis on Parler, Romero, in a 257-word email, voiced her concerns that while Facebook and Twitter were cracking down on the “Big Lie,” Parler allowed Americans to freely express their views on the 2020 election.
  2286.  
  2287. “Is this a cat and mouse chase?” Romero asked Starbird, alluding to Big Tech’s crackdown on free speech. The ABC News reporter pondered, “Will we ever stop misinformation from spreading?” without specifying who the “we” in her email referred to. In the same email, Romero suggested that she preferred “to hop on the phone to discuss this,” citing her busy schedule.
  2288.  
  2289.  
  2290.  
  2291. Tellingly, Romero did not promptly respond to MRC’s repeated requests for comments or clarification.
  2292.  
  2293. Romero ultimately published an ABC News article on Nov. 17, 2020, headlined: “‘Free speech’ social media platform Parler is a hit among Trump supporters, but experts say it won't last.” In the article, Romero accused Parler of disseminating “misinformation.” She supported her anti-free speech assertions by citing “experts.”
  2294.  
  2295.  
  2296.  
  2297. Did The Guardian Rely on EIP for Legal Advice Following Project Veritas Threat?
  2298.  
  2299. Amid a legal dispute between media activist group Project Veritas and EIP, attorneys representing then-Project Veritas President James O’Keefe filed a complaint against The Guardian. The newspaper had previously covered an EIP blog that labeled O’Keefe as a “repeat spreader” of “election misinformation” a year prior.
  2300.  
  2301. Faced with a potential legal challenge regarding its coverage of O’Keefe, Eline Gordts, a West Coast editor at The Guardian, reached out to EIP, apparently seeking guidance on how to respond to Project Veritas. Project Veritas had initiated a lawsuit against EIP over an EIP blog published on Sept. 29, 2020 (and later covered by The Guardian).
  2302.  
  2303. “O'Keefe's lawyers mention that they have filed litigation against EIP for defamatory content,” Gordts wrote to EIP researcher DiResta and Communications Director Michael Grass. 
  2304.  
  2305. Gordts added, “As we're crafting our response, it would be very helpful to get a sense of your thinking around his allegations, what exactly they are suiting [sic] over and whether Project Veritas is suing or James O'Keefe.” Later in the email, she asked to “discuss this over the phone."
  2306.  
  2307.  
  2308.  
  2309. In response, Stamos confirmed that Project Veritas had initiated legal action against EIP. He then offered Gordts access to EIP’s attorneys and provided communications advice for further comment.
  2310.  
  2311. In response, Stamos confirmed that Project Veritas had initiated legal action against EIP. He then offered Gordts access to EIP’s attorneys, deferring to them for further comment.
  2312.  
  2313. In statements to MRC, The Guardian spokesperson Matt Mittenthal vehemently denied that the newspaper had reached out to EIP for potential advice. 
  2314.  
  2315. “An editor for the Guardian contacted the Election Integrity Partnership to verify Project Veritas's claim that it had sued EIP, a fact that could have bearing on our own reporting,” he claimed in an email on Wednesday. “Any suggestion of ‘coordination’ would be a gross mischaracterization of an editor doing her job.”
  2316.  
  2317. Mittenthal said that Project Veritas did not threaten to sue The Guardian for its reporting of the EIP blog. He clarified that Gordst did not engage with EIP’s attorneys past Stamos’s comment.
  2318.  
  2319. MRC’s Schneider said that such a coordination would have been highly unusual for a media outlet.
  2320.  
  2321. “Not only did the media peddle EIP’s work blindly, but they seemed to be so entangled with EIP that they even wanted to secretly coordinate their dissembling in the courthouse. Their corruption does not end with election interference. It might also include obstruction of justice.”
  2322.  
  2323. VICE News and The Post Ask: First Amendment Worse Than Russian ‘Disinformation’?
  2324.  
  2325. One of the accusations raised by House Republicans against the EIP and its government ties is that the EIP conflated constitutionally-protected speech with alleged foreign “disinformation,” occasionally prioritizing the targeting of Americans’ free speech.
  2326.  
  2327. VICE and The Post suggested that Americans’ ability to freely speak posed a greater threat to the nation than foreign interference.
  2328.  
  2329. In September 2020, Vice commissioned a “big/special” election documentary with HBO, as indicated by Graham Brookie, an aide at The Atlantic Council’s Digital Foreign Research Lab (also part of the EIP, according to House Republicans).
  2330.  
  2331. In an email to Starbird, Brookie forwarded a note, purportedly from Vice News, that stated, “While foreign interference is continuing in similar fashion to 2016, the primary issue is domestic misinformation.” It isn’t immediately clear whether such a documentary was ever videotaped or finalized.
  2332.  
  2333.  
  2334.  
  2335. Not to be outdone by Vice, The Post's Dwoskin (mentioned earlier in this report) reached out to EIP about a briefing related to the 2020 election.
  2336.  
  2337. In the email dated Nov. 4, 2020, Dwoskin posed the highly cynical question of whether Trump declaring himself winner was “a bigger test for the platforms than Russian disinfo, in terms of protecting threats to democracy?”
  2338.  
  2339. On the same day, Dwoskin published a write-up for The Post headlined “Trump’s early victory declarations test tech giants’ mettle in policing threats to the election.” In it, she used a quote from Stamos to accuse Big Tech platforms of failing to act against so-called “repeat offenders” of “misinformation.”
  2340.  
  2341.  
  2342.  
  2343. Neither Brookie, Vice nor Dwoskin immediately responded to MRC’s request for comment.
  2344.  
  2345. NBC News to EIP: ‘Why YouTube Isn’t Adjusting’
  2346.  
  2347. In an email to Starbird, NBC News Correspondent Jake Ward whined about YouTube's alleged reluctance to follow the lead of other major Big Tech platforms in censoring Americans in the days leading up to the 2020 election.
  2348.  
  2349. The subject line of Ward’s email, dated Oct. 26, 2020, read, “Why YouTube Isn't Adjusting.” Ward sought to interview Starbird to gain a “big-picture” perspective on how YouTube “handles itself.”
  2350.  
  2351. Ward declared his intent to write a story on YouTube. “I'm putting a story together about why it is that YouTube has adjusted so little of how it handles misinformation as compared to Twitter and FB,” he wrote, extending an invitation to continue the conversation on Zoom.
  2352.  
  2353.  
  2354.  
  2355. Ward, who has since left NBC News, did not immediately respond to MRC's request for comment.
  2356.  
  2357. Ward’s concerns seemingly prompted action from YouTube, as the platform undertook a significant purge of content that allegedly violated the platform’s COVID-19 policies, resulting in the removal of over 500,000 videos. YouTube also moved to ban former President Donald Trump’s account for over three years, a decision ultimately reversed in March 2023.
  2358.  
  2359. Despite Ward’s assertions about YouTube’s perceived inaction on censorship, its parent company, Google, faced scrutiny nearly four years later, following the release of an MRC Free Speech America report. The MRC report revealed that the tech giant intervened in U.S. elections at least 41 times, every time in favor of the most left-wing candidates.
  2360.  
  2361. EIP to Fox News: No, Thank You?
  2362.  
  2363. In contrast to EIP’s engagement with other media outlets, the organization appears to have been less receptive to a Fox News reporter’s inquiry about an EIP fact check of a Project Veritas video on alleged voter fraud.
  2364.  
  2365. In an email dated Oct. 5, 2020, Fox News reporter Audrey Conklin reached out to Dr. Joe Bak-Coleman, one of the authors of an EIP blog that targeted Project Veritas. Such a blog was at the center of a now-settled lawsuit between Project Veritas and EIP.
  2366.  
  2367. Bak-Coleman forwarded the email to Starbird and Stamos seeking advice. “Thoughts on how/if I should respond? My instinct is to just ignore it but I figured better to ask y'all,” Bak-Coleman wrote that same day.
  2368.  
  2369. Starbird advised against responding, warning, “I wouldn't respond. I'm curious as to why they reached out to you and not Alex or me. Something to chat about at our next meeting.”
  2370.  
  2371.  
  2372.  
  2373. Bak-Coleman chose not to respond to Conklin. Instead, Stamos intervened, stating, “I believe our post speaks for itself and we are going to decline further comment.”
  2374.  
  2375. Legacy Media, Enemies of Free Speech?
  2376.  
  2377. Reacting to these revelations, PPT’s Chamberlain criticized the legacy media’s role in endorsing EIP’s controversial work and, even worse, failing to uphold the principles of the First Amendment.
  2378.  
  2379. “I’m old enough to remember when they would be the staunchest defenders of free speech, the First Amendment, and the search for truth,” Chamberlain told MRC. “Now it appears that instead of defending those principles they are more interested in defending the narratives they advance and defending themselves against upstarts and alternative outlets.”
  2380.  
  2381. Chamberlain concluded with a sobering assessment: “There's profit and prestige in being an approved information gatekeeper.”
  2382.  
  2383. But not all hope is gone, as Jordan and the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are calling for legislation to defund these censorship-tied tools.
  2384.  
  2385. “Our investigation continues but it’s clear that Congress must pass legislation that ends the censorship-industrial complex in all its forms, including the EIP,” Jordan told MRC.
  2386.  
  2387. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.</description>
  2388.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 1:04 PM</pubDate>
  2389.    <dc:creator>Luis Cornelio</dc:creator>
  2390.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283979</guid>
  2391.    </item>
  2392. <item>
  2393.  <title>Portland Church Vandals Make 252nd Attack on Catholic Church Since Dobbs Leak</title>
  2394.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/05/01/portland-church-vandals-make-252nd-attack-catholic</link>
  2395.  <description>Pro-aborts vandalized the St. Patrick’s Church in Portland, Oregon over the weekend making it the 252nd attack on the Catholic Church since the Dobbs decision was leaked in 2022. This is part of the left’s ongoing effort to proclaim that they want Roe reinstated and the option to kill innocent, pre-born babies at their leisure.
  2396.  
  2397. Catholic church-goers were met with the messaging when heading to services at St. Patrick’s Church in Portland for Sunday mass. 
  2398.  
  2399. “FUCK U My body My choice,” was spray painted on the once beautiful doors to the church as well as on the concrete outside the building, according to images shared on X by journalist Andy Ngo.
  2400.  
  2401.  
  2402. Breaking: Those attending mass this morning at St. Patrick’s Church in northwest Portland, Ore. arrived to find it had been vandalized again with a pro-abortion message. (The door is still stain-bleached of a removed hateful message.) Multiple Christian houses of worship have… pic.twitter.com/YqPlP4LMOW
  2403. — Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 28, 2024
  2404. Last week Catholic Vote reported on the 249th attack on a Catholic Church since the Dobbs leak. In Oklahoma, a suspect broke a statue of the Virgin Mary and one of the Holy Family at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Muskogee.
  2405.  
  2406. According to CatholicVote’s violence tracker, there have been at least 252 attacks perpetrated against Catholic churches since May 2022 and there have been 417 attacks against Catholic churches in the United States since May 28, 2020.
  2407.  
  2408. The list doesn’t incorporate violence against Christian churches or pregnancy centers, but I suspect that if it did, the number would be close to double since anyone who affirms the Bible’s stance on the sanctity of life has been under attack for years. The list does however show the gravity of this situation and how pro-aborts, unsurprisingly, turn to violence and aggression to show that they support abortion --- just like this weekend over in Portland.
  2409.  
  2410. Ngo noted that the doors have been cleaned but are now bleach stained since they needed to be deeply scrubbed from the black spray paint.
  2411.  
  2412. In response, some users called on the FBI in Portland to find and charge the vandals. “Maybe when you’re done arresting grandma for going for a walk you can arrest these people,” a user wrote, “a house of worship is a safe haven for pro life.”
  2413.  
  2414. A different user noted that this was “heartbreaking” while another called the vandal(s) “soulless ghouls.”
  2415.  
  2416. “If something like this was done to an abortion clinic it would declared domestic terrorism or a RICO violation. This act should be treated the same,” one more wrote on Ngo’s post.
  2417.  
  2418. We’re about to reach two full years since the Dobbs decision was leaked and this sort of violence started. My hope and prayer is that it not only stops but that hearts are changed and minds are woken up to the realities of what abortion is.
  2419.  
  2420.  </description>
  2421.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 11:28 AM</pubDate>
  2422.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  2423.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283977</guid>
  2424.    </item>
  2425. <item>
  2426.  <title>Colbert Twists Sources To Spread Hysteria About Snipers At Colleges</title>
  2427.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/05/01/colbert-twists-sources-spread-hysteria-about-snipers-colleges</link>
  2428.  <description>Stephen Colbert spread hysteria about the anti-Israel encampments on college campuses on Tuesday’s edition of The Late Show on CBS. Making matters much worse is that Colbert took his own sources out of context in order to make his claims.
  2429.  
  2430. First, however, Colbert had to set the scene, “The protests ramped up a couple of weeks ago, after students erected tents on Columbia University's main lawn to show solidarity with Gaza.” After being interrupted by applause from the audience, he continued, “and the university president took the controversial step of calling in the police to arrest those involved. Now, even if you don't agree with the subject of their protests as long as they are peaceful, students should be allowed to protest. It's their First Amendment right.”
  2431.  
  2432.  
  2433.  
  2434.  
  2435.  
  2436.  
  2437.  
  2438.  
  2439.  
  2440. You do not have a First Amendment right to illegal trespass. You cannot walk into the Ed Sullivan Theater. pitch a tent, and claim that is your new home until CBS meets your demands. Colbert would concede at the end “that overnight, protestors at Columbia broke into a campus building.”
  2441.  
  2442. Still, he claimed “That is the kind of idealism you learn in college, it's one of the few college lessons you can use your whole life, unlike beer funneling, which you stop being able to do around 35, when your wife catches you.”
  2443.  
  2444. Colbert wants to pretend that the demonstrators are simple peace activists and not anti-Semitic, but before you could tell him what groups like Students for Justice in Palestine really believe, he continued, “’Photos online show police snipers set up on the roofs of buildings at Ohio State University and Indiana University.’”
  2445.  
  2446. When doing his monologue, Colbert will talk over screenshots of his sources. That last quote came from a Snopes article, but here is the full quote, “Two photographs circulated online in posts claiming that state police snipers had set up on the roofs of buildings at Ohio State University and Indiana University.” It also reads, “The OSU newspaper The Lantern reported that the people on the roof of the OSU building were initially using spotting scopes to watch protesters, but switched to rifles once arrests began on the green space below.”
  2447.  
  2448. Colbert continued, “although ‘the Ohio State University administration stated that these were state police officers… which the school also employs during football games.’ "’What are you worrying about, students? The snipers are always there. For football games, women's volleyball, an acapella.’”
  2449.  
  2450. The part of the Intelligencer article that Colbert’s ellipse took out was, “Ohio State administration stated that these were state police officers working as spotters, which the school also employs during football games.”
  2451.  
  2452. Snopes also reported that at the time the videos went viral, there were no snipers at Ohio State (they never confirmed or disproved the Indiana claim), but after arrests began, “the two people on the roof had indeed switched to "long-range firearms as part of their protocol." 
  2453.  
  2454. Colbert spread fake news about the timing of the snipers, he fed into the hysteria that implied that law enforcement that provides security for large crowd events has itchy trigger fingers, and he took his sources out of context to do it.
  2455.  
  2456. Here is a transcript for the April 30 show:
  2457.  
  2458.  
  2459. CBS The Late Show
  2460.  
  2461. 4/30/2024
  2462.  
  2463. 11:41 PM ET
  2464.  
  2465. STEPHEN COLBERT: The protests ramped up a couple of weeks ago, after students erected tents on Columbia University's main lawn to show solidarity with Gaza, and the university president took the controversial step of calling in the police to arrest those involved. Now, even if you don't agree with the subject of their protests as long as they are peaceful, students should be allowed to protest. It's their First Amendment right. That is the kind of idealism you learn in college, it's one of the few college lessons you can use your whole life, unlike beer funneling, which you stop being able to do around 35, when your wife catches you. 
  2466.  
  2467. And it's not just at Columbia. Yesterday, cops arrested at least 100 protestors at UT Austin. This morning, they arrested at least 30 protestors at UNC Chapel Hill. Yes, college administrators are using the classic de-escalation tactic of sending in heavily armed police and threatening to call the National Guard. Photos online show police snipers set up on the roofs of buildings at Ohio State university and Indiana University, although the Ohio State University administration stated that these were state police officers … which the school also employs during football games "What are you worrying about, students? The snipers are always there. For football games, women's volleyball, an acapella. You've been warned, guy who goes "Sha-doop shooby Doop." Buy a guitar!"
  2468.  
  2469. Now, tensions right now are so high that overnight, protestors at Columbia broke into a campus building, which probably will not help their cause with the public.
  2470. </description>
  2471.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 10:05 AM</pubDate>
  2472.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  2473.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283975</guid>
  2474.    </item>
  2475. <item>
  2476.  <title>White House Correspondents Dinner Was a FAIL: MRCTV’s Tierin-Rose Mandelburg on OANN</title>
  2477.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/05/01/white-house-correspondents-dinner-was-fail-mrctvs</link>
  2478.  <description>On Monday, MRCTV’s Tierin-Rose Mandelburg appeared on One America News Network’s In Focus with Alison Steinberg to talk about the failed White House Correspondents Dinner that took place over the weekend.
  2479.  
  2480. Outside the event, as guests were arriving, large crowds of pro-Gaza protesters chanted and yelled at them. Obviously the guests, only caring for themselves, waltzed right in and didn’t bat an eye. (Remember, these elitists only cared about getting wined and dined by the president.)
  2481.  
  2482. Steinberg hopes the video of the elitists ignoring the protestors gets people to wake up and realize that “None of these people care about you, they’re never going to [and] they’re never going to make the changes that you want to see.”
  2483.  
  2484.  
  2485.  
  2486.  
  2487.  
  2488.  
  2489. OAN then played a video from inside the dinner where President Joe Biden struggled to eat his salad. 
  2490.  
  2491. The irony of it was that at the event, Biden claimed that his opponent, former President Donald Trump, was the six-year-old.
  2492.  
  2493. I bet a six-year-old could use his fork properly.
  2494.  
  2495. Related: MRCTV's Tierin-Rose Mandelburg on OAN: Dancing in the White House, Woke NPR &amp; Travis Kelce
  2496.  
  2497. A video clip was also played from the 2014 White House Correspondents Dinner where even President Barack Obama laughed at jokes poking fun of Biden’s mental abilities. 
  2498.  
  2499. Yet, 10 years later, we’ve still got people thinking he’s fully capable of running our country.
  2500.  
  2501. Follow us on Twitter/X:
  2502.  
  2503.  
  2504.  
  2505.  
  2506. Things That Need To Be Said: The World Is Taking Christians For Granted
  2507. Christian prosecution is growing in prominence and is largely ignored, if not outright encouraged, by our leftist government. pic.twitter.com/gIxNLk2nUg
  2508. — MRCTV (@mrctv) April 29, 2024</description>
  2509.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 7:36 AM</pubDate>
  2510.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  2511.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283968</guid>
  2512.    </item>
  2513. <item>
  2514.  <title>Column: The White House Correspondents Host a Biden Rally</title>
  2515.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/05/01/column-white-house-correspondents-host-biden-rally</link>
  2516.  <description>It was remarkable breaking news, occurring live on CNN. The White House Correspondents Association hosted a dinner and a Biden for President rally broke out.
  2517.  
  2518. It’s only natural that CNN loves live coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner, where the anti-Trump media celebrate themselves for how essential they are to preserving democracy and how valiantly they warn Americans that Donald Trump is democracy's antonym.
  2519.  
  2520. President Biden’s speech made some jokes about his age – it’s that safe spot where all the late-night comedians go. But he also showed nastiness: “Yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old.” They loved that joke on CNN.
  2521.  
  2522. Like last year, Biden thought it was funny to insist he doesn’t have to grant access to reporters, because “I do interviews with strong independent journalists who millions of people actually listen to, like Howard Stern.” Instead, he lectured them about how Trump “has made no secret of his attack on our democracy,” and the “free press” needs to make sure the voters have “the information they need to make an informed decision.”
  2523.  
  2524. Biden thinks a pro-Biden media needs to deliver: “I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides, but asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment.” He clearly means the media need to underline Trump needs to lose.
  2525.  
  2526. Biden ripped into Trump, ranting about January 6, spewing misinformation about Trump’s attention-grabbing way of speaking. “He said he wants to be a dictator on Day One….he promised a bloodbath when he loses again.”
  2527.  
  2528. If you’re a low-information voter, you wouldn’t know Trump joked with Sean Hannity about being a dictator for one day, and he said our economy would be a “bloodbath” if Biden was reelected. You can scold Trump for his rhetorical red meat. But that doesn’t mean journalists and presidents should mischaracterize what he says.
  2529.  
  2530. This is not how these dinners used to work. Twenty years ago at this dinner, when President George W. Bush was lining up against Sen. John Kerry, Bush didn’t say one negative word about his opponent or one negative word about the opposing party. He made gentle jokes about the press. He didn’t urge the networks to defeat John Kerry at the anchor desk. He talked about heroic reporters in war zones, and heroic soldiers.
  2531.  
  2532. That’s not how it unfolded in 2024. The hired comedian, Saturday Night Live fake-news anchor Colin Jost, concluded his comedy routine by remembering his late grandfather, a Staten Island firefighter, who voted for Biden in 2020.
  2533.  
  2534. “He voted for you, and the reason that he voted for you is because you're a decent man. My grandpa voted for decency, and decency is why we're all here tonight. Decency is how we're able to be here tonight. Decency is how we're able to make jokes about each other, and one of us doesn't go to prison after.”
  2535.  
  2536. He then repeated: “So, Mr. President, I thank you for your decency on behalf of my grandfather.”
  2537.  
  2538. Jost said this after Biden said his opponent was a six-year-old who would spur a bloodbath if he loses. He said this after he mocked Trump as “currently spending his days farting himself awake during a porn-star hush-money trial,” and the courtroom sketch artist makes Trump look like “the Grinch had sex with the Lorax.”
  2539.  
  2540. At least CNN allowed their contributor Scott Jennings to sum up the evening: “We had Biden speak tonight, and then we had a Biden surrogate effectively speak tonight.”  It's no wonder CNN wanted to air the whole thing live.</description>
  2541.  <pubDate>May 1st, 2024 5:41 AM</pubDate>
  2542.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  2543.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283973</guid>
  2544.    </item>
  2545. <item>
  2546.  <title>MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Frets Campus Protests May Lead To Next Reagan Era</title>
  2547.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/04/30/msnbcs-alex-wagner-frets-campus-protests-may-lead-next-reagan-era</link>
  2548.  <description>While discussing the ongoing NYPD clearing of the virulent anti-semitic protest at Columbia University, MSNBC host Alex Wagner and her guest, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, noticed the historic parallels between this moment and 1968- and where it ultimately led.
  2549.  
  2550. Watch the aforementioned exchange, which closed the show’s live coverage of the protest clearing, as aired on MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight on Tuesday, April 30th, 2024:
  2551.  
  2552.  
  2553. ALEX WAGNER: Michelle, the- Hamilton Hall is- for people who are not familiar with the Columbia campus: in April of 1968, 56 years ago, hundreds of students seized the building during protests over the Vietnam War.  I do not think that was lost to the people who stormed Hamilton Hall. After a week- this is, again, in 1968, police entered through underground tunnels and cleared them out. Over 700 people were arrested.
  2554.  
  2555. MICHELLE GOLDBERG: Right, and that’s remembered as a really dark chapter in Columbia's history, which is why it’s so breathtaking to see them repeated.
  2556.  
  2557. WAGNER: But it does, you know- putting this in the broader context of what’s happening in American politics, I mean, when this began I think, for a lot of people all these campus protests had the echo of the 1960s. It feels like an inflection point for the country. We are barreling toward a presidential election. The country feels catastrophically divided on every- on every issue from basic facts to an actual policy vision--
  2558.  
  2559. GOLDBERG: A Democratic presidential convention in Chicago?
  2560.  
  2561. WAGNER: Yes. Exactly, echoes of 1968 and I just wonder, you know, it’s hard to imagine that this is- that this imagery of the NYPD storming Columbia in this- in this moment is not going to reverberate in ways that we cannot yet see across the political divide.
  2562.  
  2563. GOLDBERG: And I think we should remember what the kind of images of protest disorder did in the late 60s. Because even as the Vietnam War became increasingly unpopular, so did the antiwar protests. And it was in part the backlash to that as well as to urban crime that gave us not just Richard Nixon…
  2564.  
  2565. WAGNER: Yeah.
  2566.  
  2567. GOLDBERG: …but kind of un- except for a four-year oasis of Jimmy Carter, unbroken Republican rule until Bill Clinton. And so I would expect that we are already seeing the backlash to this, but I would expect it to be ferocious.
  2568.  
  2569. WAGNER: Yeah. The late '70s were a period of retrenchment. And then 1980 saw Ronald Ragan and a conservative agenda that was fiercer, more focused and more effective than maybe any other conservative agenda in ways that we are still grappling with to this day. I mean, it’s the establishment. The Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society. Any number of right-wing organizations. A master plan to retake the judiciary. I mean, what we saw in the aftereffect of the Vietnam War was really a brand of conservatism, a new Right that the country had never seen before. 
  2570.  
  2571.  
  2572. Upon watching the segment, one’s first instinct is to warn Wagner not to threaten us with a good time. She and Goldberg correctly note that the unrest of the late ‘60s reverberated through our politics for many years. In many ways, it is still doing so. Those students entered into our higher learning institutions and corrupted them into the Marxist indoctrination centers we see today. There is indeed a very bright through line between those protests and today’s protests.
  2573.  
  2574. And it is interesting to watch Wagner and Goldberg squirm through their thought exercise. But they’re not entirely wrong. These protests will in fact reverberate in ways that are not yet clear to us. And they may well lead, much to Wagner’s dismay, to “a new Right that the country had never seen before.” The fact that this conversation is even happening on MSNBC air says much about the current moment.
  2575.  
  2576.  </description>
  2577.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 11:18 PM</pubDate>
  2578.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  2579.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283974</guid>
  2580.    </item>
  2581. <item>
  2582.  <title>NY Times: GOP Calling Immigrant Surge an ‘Invasion’ Dehumanizing, ‘Could Stoke Violence’</title>
  2583.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2024/04/30/ny-times-gop-calling-immigrant-surge-invasion-dehumanizing-could</link>
  2584.  <description>New York Times national politics reporter Jazmine Ulloa has deputized herself to patrol the parameters of acceptable political discourse from her liberal perspective, attacked Republicans candidates again for daring to call the influx of immigrants across our southern border an “invasion,” in Sunday’s edition: “Talk of an Immigrant ‘Invasion’ Grows in Republican Ads and Speech.”
  2585.  
  2586. As the elections loom, Ulloa’s hypersensitive language radar seems tuned only to the words of one political party.
  2587.  
  2588.  
  2589. A campaign ad from a Republican congressional candidate from Indiana sums up the arrival of migrants at the border with one word. He doesn’t call it a problem or a crisis.
  2590.  
  2591. He calls it an “invasion.”
  2592.  
  2593. ....
  2594.  
  2595. It was not so long ago that the term invasion had been mostly relegated to the margins of the national immigration debate. Many candidates and political figures tended to avoid the word, which echoed demagoguery in previous centuries targeting Asian, Latino and European immigrants. Few mainstream Republicans dared use it.
  2596.  
  2597. ....
  2598.  
  2599. The resurgence of the term exemplifies the shift in Republican rhetoric in the era of former President Donald J. Trump and his right-wing supporters. Language once considered hostile has become common, sometimes precisely because it runs counter to politically correct sensibilities. Immigration has also become more divisive, with even Democratic mayors complaining about the number of migrants in their cities.
  2600.  
  2601. Democrats and advocates for migrants denounce the word and its recent turn from being taboo. Historians and analysts who study political rhetoric have long warned that the term dehumanizes those to whom it refers and could stoke violence, noting that it appeared in writings by perpetrators of deadly mass shootings in Pittsburgh, Pa.; El Paso, Texas; and Buffalo, N.Y., in recent years.
  2602.  
  2603.  
  2604. If one truly wanted to police offensive and threatening language, Ulloa should look no further than a “pro-Palestinian” rally at the nearest “progressive” college campus.
  2605.  
  2606.  
  2607. Republicans defend using the word and see it as an apt descriptor for a situation that they argue has intensified beyond crisis levels and one that could help sway voters.
  2608.  
  2609.  
  2610. Ulloa extrapolated wildly, going from the word “invasion” to mass murder in three sentences flat. "Analysts" of "extremism" say the I-word suggests racism and anti-semitism.
  2611.  
  2612.  
  2613. Analysts who study political rhetoric and extremism have continued to raise alarm that the word invasion and what they describe as similarly inflammatory language regarding immigration plays into replacement theory. The racist doctrine, which has circulated in far right-wing corners of the internet, holds that Western elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to “replace” and disempower white Americans. The shooters in Pittsburgh, El Paso and Buffalo echoed the theory in online posts, and targeted Jews, Hispanics and Black people in their killings.
  2614.  
  2615.  
  2616. She accused Donald Trump of “using language that invokes the racial hatred of Hitler” (Trump’s “poisoning the blood of our country” remark) before relaying concerns about “Republican fear-mongering about migrants" from a researcher at America’s Voice.
  2617.  
  2618. America’s Voice is hardly a non-partisan one. Their main goal, according to the group’s website, is to “win reforms that put 11 million undocumented Americans on a path to full citizenship."</description>
  2619.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 10:48 PM</pubDate>
  2620.    <dc:creator>Clay Waters</dc:creator>
  2621.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283947</guid>
  2622.    </item>
  2623. <item>
  2624.  <title>Intolerant Nancy Pelosi Yells at MSNBC's Katy Tur, Suggests She's 'a Trump Apologist'</title>
  2625.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/30/intolerant-nancy-pelosi-yells-msnbcs-katy-tur-suggests-shes-trump</link>
  2626.  <description> Democrats and MSNBC watchers – which are pretty much the same thing – cannot tolerate anyone making a contrary point. On Monday afternoon, MSNBC host Katy Tur interviewed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for almost 15 minutes. She asked the usual between-us-Democrats questions, starting with how much the Democrats can insure untrammeled abortion on demand if they can stay in power.
  2627.  
  2628. Tur worried out loud that the anti-Israel protests on campus could hurt Democrats, as radical and violent protests at the 1968 convention helped elect Nixon. But Pelosi lost all patience with Tur at the tail end of an answer lasting two minutes and 40 seconds without interruption about how Biden is great:
  2629.  
  2630.  
  2631. PELOSI: There are those who have real legitimate concerns about immigration, globalization, innovation, and what does that mean to their job and their family’s future? And we have to address those concerns. And Joe Biden is doing that. Created nine million jobs in his term in office. Donald Trump has the worst record of job loss of a president. So, we just have to make sure people know.
  2632.  
  2633.  
  2634. Tur interjected with a fact: “That was during a global pandemic.” This inflamed Pelosi.
  2635.  
  2636.  
  2637.  
  2638.  
  2639.  
  2640.  
  2641.  
  2642. “He had the worst record of any president,” Pelosi repeated in anger, karate-chopping the air in Tur's face. “We’ve had other concerns in our country. If you want to be an apologist for Donald Trump, that may be your role, but it ain’t mine.”
  2643.  
  2644. “I don’t think anybody can accuse me of that,” Tur said. Pelosi expects MSNBC hosts to be an apologist for Pelosi.
  2645.  
  2646. Like Andrea Mitchell, Katy Tur hits the "Trending" bar on Twitter when the MSNBC base thinks they are so Republican they should just defect to Fox News. The big "Really American" account got out the flame emojis: 
  2647.  
  2648.  
  2649. 🚨If you only watch ONE video today, watch Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi stuffing Katy Tur into a locker for being "an apologist for Donald Trump" after Tur attempted to defend his abysmal job loss record.
  2650. Extremely satisfying!🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/hPkVtfKr1o
  2651. — Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) April 29, 2024
  2652. Tur closed out by asking about the House Democrats uniting against efforts by a few Republicans to remove current Speaker Mike Johnson, and then concluded with gushy thanks: "Thank you very much for joining us. It's really wonderful to see you in person. I appreciate it."</description>
  2653.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 9:54 PM</pubDate>
  2654.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  2655.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283972</guid>
  2656.    </item>
  2657. <item>
  2658.  <title>John Leguizamo Brings His Boring ‘Professional Latinx’ Act To The View</title>
  2659.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/04/30/john-leguizamo-brings-his-boring-professional-latinx-act-view</link>
  2660.  <description>Actor/playwright/woke sermonizer John Leguizamo joined the bitter harridans at ABC’s The View, delighting them with his own performative bitterness and racial grievance. He was also there, ironically, to promote his own show on a new streaming platform called The Network.
  2661.  
  2662. I say “ironically” because Leguizamo has achieved obvious professional success, transforming himself from comedic role player into Very Serious Actor, which belies his other career as professional racial grievance monger. 
  2663.  
  2664.  
  2665.  
  2666.  
  2667.  
  2668.  
  2669.  
  2670.  
  2671.  
  2672. Watch as Leguizamo explains the sentiment that went into how he portrayed this latest character, as aired on ABC’s The View on Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 (click “expand”):
  2673.  
  2674.  
  2675. JOHN LEGUIZAMO: Uh…because it's exactly what I wanted to do with this character. I didn't need people to like me. I didn't want them to like me but they needed to understand the sickness.
  2676.  
  2677. ASUNCION CUMMINGS-HOSTIN: Yes.
  2678.  
  2679. LEGUIZAMO: That's what I wanted them to understand. What it takes to be a Latin man in a country and wanting to pass and believing that if you pass and you do everything right that the system is going to take you, but it doesn't. It spits you right back out.
  2680.  
  2681. WHOOPI GOLDBERG: That's right.
  2682.  
  2683. LEGUIZAMO: So here he is, like when you watch on Fox News, you know, you watch and then they- when they're taking down our democracy they'll put up all this border stuff and who is the people perpetrating, grabbing the children and the moms are Latino patrol officers. 
  2684.  
  2685. MULTIPLE THE VIEW PANELISTS IN MINDLESS AGREEMENT: Yes.
  2686.  
  2687. LEGUIZAMO: So, that's the kind of character, that's how I related and got my --
  2688.  
  2689. JOY BEHAR: Important to tell.
  2690.  
  2691. HOSTIN: It is. I have to echo Sara. I started it last night and I was up till 1:00 in the morning.
  2692.  
  2693. LEGUIZAMO: Oh, you too? I'm sorry. My bad.
  2694.  
  2695. HOSTIN: I couldn't stop watching it. I couldn't stop watching it. And my husband was watching it with me and we were so enthralled by this. And the issue of being Latino in this country, right? And so you say people are going to despise you as a character. I did despise you.
  2696.  
  2697. LEGUIZAMO: Thank you, thank you. I want that.
  2698.  
  2699. HOSTIN: Yeah. I did. I did.
  2700.  
  2701. LEGUIZAMO: This guy is not a good guy.
  2702.  
  2703. HOSTIN: He's not a good guy. He’s doing everything he can to assimilate, but hide his heritage…
  2704.  
  2705. LEGUIZAMO: Yes.
  2706.  
  2707. HOSTIN: … while brutalizing others for their heritage, right? So, what was that like as a Latino to take it on?
  2708.  
  2709. LEGUIZAMO: Oh, it was -- it was painful, you know, to -- you had to take on all this rage.
  2710.  
  2711. HOSTIN: Yeah.
  2712.  
  2713. LEGUIZAMO: And then, you know, I'm snatching children from their parents and they're screaming and those screams would give me like PTSD when I would go home and be by myself, so it's hard to live with that, you know. You know, Latinos, I feel like Latinos are in a really good intersection right now in our culture because we're finally embracing and accepting that we're indigenous and accepting our Afro-Latino culture.
  2714.  
  2715. HOSTIN: Yes, yes.
  2716.  
  2717. (AUDIENCE CLAPS LIKE SEALS)
  2718.  
  2719. LEGIZAMO: Because we were ashamed…
  2720.  
  2721. HOSTIN: Yes.
  2722.  
  2723. LEGUIZAMO: …and in denial.
  2724.  
  2725. HOSTIN: Very anti-black for a long time. In our community.
  2726.  
  2727. LEGUIZAMO: And anti-indigenous. The majority of us are indigenous. You know, I'm 26% indigenous and 5% Afro-Latino but, you know, my family is all like the whiter you are, the prettier you are, if your hair is straight but not too straight because then it's indigenous and add then you gotta add those European features- then you're beautiful. Everybody else, not so much. But we’re finally getting over that. I feel like we’re really coming to a place where we’re rejecting that.
  2728.  
  2729.  
  2730. Hispanics have been here since before, and fought in, the Revolutionary War. This inconvenient fact is often buried by the left because it is inconsistent with the manufactured Latino identity, created in order to erase this community’s Spanish (and Christian) heritage and impose a new, political identity built around the flimsiest foundation: language. The absurdity of the artificial Latino identity is that, despite it being a wholly American construct, it seeks to permanently alienate a community that has been in America since before its founding.
  2731.  
  2732. This is the identity that Leguizamo champions and defends and seeks to impose at every turn, depicting himself as an aggrieved outsider despite enjoying the fruits of Hollywood longevity, and deriding fellow Hispanics with whom he disagrees for the entertainment of fellow leftists and their audiences. Hence his spiteful remarks about Hispanics on Fox and Border Patrol agents. It could’ve been worse- he could’ve trotted out his “roaches for Raid” joke. 
  2733.  
  2734. It is entirely fitting that the clip previewed on The View shows him demanding that his on-screen wife “fall in line”, because this is what Leguizamo does in real life. Case in point, his MSNBC special on the Hispanic experience in New York. While seated at the table with hip-hop legends Fat Joe and DJ Tony Touch, Leguizamo chooses to spend his time effectively hectoring his guests into usage of the term “Latinx”.
  2735.  
  2736.  
  2737.  
  2738.  
  2739. Never forget the time that John Leguizamo hectored hip-hop legends Fat Joe and DJ Tony Touch into using the term "Latinx" pic.twitter.com/WFm8ZUCLA3
  2740. — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 30, 2024
  2741.  
  2742.  
  2743. Leguizamo’s act, while acclaimed on leftist spaces such as ABC News product The View, is tired, boring, derivative, and concocted for the consumption of woke, mostly white elites- as opposed to the community he purports to champion and which he does not seem to understand.
  2744.  
  2745. You may feel inclined to feel some sort of sympathy for the fact that we (and by “we”, I mean mostly the great Nick Fondacaro) have to watch this nonsense but, as Hyman Roth famously said to Don Michael Corleone: this is the business we’ve chosen.</description>
  2746.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 8:16 PM</pubDate>
  2747.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  2748.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283971</guid>
  2749.    </item>
  2750. <item>
  2751.  <title>CNN Frets ‘Escalation’ by Police Disrupted ‘Peaceful’ Students ‘Dancing’ for Hamas</title>
  2752.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/04/30/cnn-frets-escalation-police-disrupted-peaceful-students-dancing</link>
  2753.  <description> During a rare moment Tuesday when CNN wasn’t obsessing over the first Trump trial, correspondent Dianne Gallagher used a live shot from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to fret police caused “a very intense escalation” with pro-Hamas students, whom she said were merely holding a “rally and silent vigil” with “dancing and chanting” amid their tent cities.
  2754.  
  2755. Oh, and they had torn down the American flag at the center of campus and replaced it with a Palestinian flag. And, by the way, the mostly white pro-Hamas crowd repeatedly threw water bottles and other projectiles at black police officers. Gallagher ignored the latter because reasons.
  2756.  
  2757. “What I can tell you is that this is a very intense escalation from how it has been for the past several hours,” Gallagher began, whining police had soured the vibes at what “was a rally and silent vigil for Palestine” and the raising of the Palestinian flag at a campus flagpole.
  2758.  
  2759.  
  2760.  
  2761.  
  2762.  
  2763.  
  2764.  
  2765.  
  2766.  
  2767.  
  2768.  
  2769. Alas, the fun and games were over when “a large group of police officers [came] down Polk Place and just sort of [came] for the students who had interlocking arms around this flag pole” to reinstall the American flag.
  2770.  
  2771. “But with the force that this was done, pushing down students, some into these barricades that were placed up this morning after police cleared an encampment that had been here on Polk Place for about 90 hours,” she fretted.
  2772.  
  2773. Adding the students being told early in the morning to disperse left them feeling uneasy because it had been such “a very peaceful encampment”, she revealed “about 30 people were detained” with the local district attorney telling her “that is mix of arrest and citations.”
  2774.  
  2775. “The University of North Carolina says that they were in violation of negotiations that have been ongoing by putting tents back up on Sunday afternoon. The university students who were at the encampment told me today that they felt like there was no real negotiation with the university. They felt like this was more of a one-sided conversation,” she countered, giving more credence to the students.
  2776.  
  2777. Explaining students told her “[t]hey had taken the tents down twice already” and “there had been no real discussion with the university”, she reiterated her supposedly neutral description of the “intense escalation from what we saw just 20 minutes ago or so” when “there were students dancing and chanting” to police arriving (in order to restore order).
  2778.  
  2779. Gallagher never explained what the pro-Palestinian students were saying or what any of their signs read. Rather, she boasted what had been happening was “incredibly peaceful and very low key” with there even having been a “silent vigil” (click “expand”):
  2780.  
  2781.  
  2782. We had lots of speakers out here earlier that we were listening to, roughly five or six hours after many of those people who were either arrested or cited were released. Now, they put barricades up after the encampment was cleared this morning, and we did see these protesters — you can see there’s a couple of skirmishes over here. We did see those protests or sort of remove those barricades after several hours of that — protests and silent vigil to come and take down the American flag, put up the Palestinian flag, and continue their chants. 
  2783.  
  2784. Everything that we have observed today from about noon on has been incredibly peaceful and very low key for the most part up until we saw the officers run across this lawn here. That is really the most intense energy that we have felt. I’m — I’m gonna let you kind of look at what is going on again here, but it does appear they’re just trying to raise this American flag up. I’m gonna get my photographer westward to just sort of show the growing number of students that is starting to come here to Polk Place. Now, again, this is not what the situation necessarily looked like just a few moments ago here at the University of North Carolina.
  2785.  
  2786.  
  2787. Exit question for CNN: If pro-Holocaust college students and their well-funded allies taking over campuses is “peaceful”, then what was Charlottesville?
  2788.  
  2789.  
  2790. CNN Special Report: Trump Hush Money Trial
  2791. April 30, 2024
  2792. 2:40 p.m. Eastern
  2793.  
  2794. ERIN BURNETT: And we are watching dramatic developments unfold at college campus protests nationwide right now, Wolf.
  2795.  
  2796. WOLF BLITZER: I want to get right to CNN’s Dianne Gallagher. She’s on the scene for us at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These are live pictures we’re showing our viewers right now, Dianne. Update our viewers.
  2797.  
  2798. DIANNE GALLAGHER: Alright, I cannot hear on IFB anymore, but I’m assuming that you are on our pictures right now. What I can tell you is that this is a very intense escalation from how it has been for the past several hours. There was a rally and silent vigil for Palestine that occurred for several — after they — I don’t know if you can see right now — they’re taking the Palestinian flag down off the flagpole, which was put up there about 30 minutes or so ago by protesters. They took the American flag down, raised the Palestinian flag. About five minutes or so ago, we saw a large group of police officers come down Polk Place and just sort of come for the students who had interlocking arms around this flag pole. It appears they’re trying to remove the Palestinian flag and re-raise an American flag up on this flagpole here. But with the force that this was done, pushing down students, some into these barricades that were placed up this morning after police cleared an encampment that had been here on Polk Place for about 90 hours. The University of North Carolina sent an e-mail, sent out a paper statement basically warning the students at 5:37 this morning, they had to clear the encampment by 6:00 a.m. Many of the students we spoke with said that they were sleeping and did not know until some faculty came down about ten minutes before six to get out. According to the university, about 30 people were detained. I spoke with the district attorney. He said that is a mix of arrest and citations. Talking to students, they say that, again, they were very surprised by this. They felt that it had been a very peaceful encampment up to that point. The University of North Carolina says that they were in violation of negotiations that have been ongoing by putting tents back up on Sunday afternoon. The university students who were at the encampment told me today that they felt like there was no real negotiation with the university. They felt like this was more of a one-sided conversation. They had taken the tents down twice already, but there had been no real discussion with the university, those students say, about their demands of divestment and disclosure of finances. Now, they say that — that is why they put those tents back up on Sunday afternoon, what the university deemed as that violation for them to go and clear the encampment this morning. The students again saying there was no real honest negotiation, they felt, with the school and that was why they kept those up. Now, again, this is an intense escalation from what we saw just 20 minutes ago or so, there were students dancing and chanting. You can now hear other students coming and staying USA, USA. We’re seeing more students now come to Polk Place. This sort of green area where we’d actually been seeing sort a decrease in people out here. They were finishing for the day. We had lots of speakers out here earlier that we were listening to, roughly five or six hours after many of those people who were either arrested or cited were released. Now, they put barricades up after the encampment was cleared this morning, and we did see these protesters — you can see there’s a couple of skirmishes over here. We did see those protests or sort of remove those barricades after several hours of that — protests and silent vigil to come and take down the American flag, put up the Palestinian flag, and continue their chants. Everything that we have observed today from about noon on has been incredibly peaceful and very low key for the most part up until we saw the officers run across this lawn here. That is really the most intense energy that we have felt. I’m — I’m gonna let you kind of look at what is going on again here, but it does appear they’re just trying to raise this American flag up. I’m gonna get my photographer westward to just sort of show the growing number of students that is starting to come here to Polk Place. Now, again, this is not what the situation necessarily looked like just a few moments ago here at the University of North Carolina.
  2799.  
  2800. BURNETT: All right, Dianne Gallagher showing us these images. You know, of course, at the beginning when we were seeing those police come in to try to reach voice that American flags, some of those images Diane had were really dramatic. Kids sort of being thrown out from that coordinate of police officers from what we could see, a few of them and now, chanting and it looks like a — police are re-raising that American flag. A very dynamic situation at UNC-Chapel Hill. Our Dianne Gallagher is there. We’re going to be checking back in with that here over these next few moments.
  2801. </description>
  2802.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 6:42 PM</pubDate>
  2803.    <dc:creator>Curtis Houck</dc:creator>
  2804.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283970</guid>
  2805.    </item>
  2806. <item>
  2807.  <title>Tit for Tat? Apple Censors US Social Media Apps at Request of Chinese Gov’t After TikTok Ultimatum</title>
  2808.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/catherine-salgado/2024/04/30/tit-tat-apple-censors-us-social-media-apps-request</link>
  2809.  <description>Did Apple just help China retaliate against America’s possible TikTok ban?
  2810.  
  2811. Apple has long invested heavily in Chinese markets, and, based on a recent report, the company is willing to exercise censorship to maintain those markets. Bloomberg reportedon April 18 that Apple Inc. had removed at least four social media services from its Chinese App Store, including two Meta-owned apps. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which Bloomberg called “one of the world’s most rigid internet censorship regimes,” demanded that Apple remove the apps over alleged “national security” concerns. Apple complied just after President Joe Biden signed a bill forcing TikTok to either relinquish its Chinese communist government ties or leave the country. The process of both bans have been ongoing, however.
  2812.  
  2813. Bloomberg explained, “The orders come on the heels of a cleanup program Chinese regulators initiated in 2023 that was expected to remove many defunct or unregistered apps from domestic iOS and Android stores.” Mobile app developers were reportedly required to complete registration with the CCP by the end of March or be forced to cease operating. The censored apps are Meta’s Threads and WhatsApp, along with Signal and Telegram.
  2814.  
  2815. In a statement obtained by Bloomberg, Apple claimed that it disagreed with the CCP’s demands but had to follow them. “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree. The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple stated, per Bloomberg. “These apps remain available for download on all other storefronts where they appear.”
  2816.  
  2817. The dictatorial CCP’s “Great Firewall” has long banned foreign social media apps, including Facebook and Twitter (now X). Asia-Pacific news site The Diplomat, noted that Chinese users can be sentenced to years in prison for criticizing CCP officials.
  2818.  
  2819. American companies’ operations in Communist China continue to be controversial, as do the operations of Chinese companies in America. President Joe Biden signed a bill a week ago that gives TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance a choice between selling TikTok or having the popular app banned. The CCP owns a board seat and maintains a financial stake in ByteDance, and multiple reports claim Chinese employees have access to U.S. TikTok user data, raising national security concerns. 
  2820.  
  2821. Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.</description>
  2822.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 5:50 PM</pubDate>
  2823.    <dc:creator>Catherine Salgado and Gabriela Pariseau</dc:creator>
  2824.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283969</guid>
  2825.    </item>
  2826. <item>
  2827.  <title>Reid Compares College Israel Haters To The Civil Rights Movement</title>
  2828.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/04/30/reid-compares-college-israel-haters-civil-rights-movement</link>
  2829.  <description>MSNBC’s Joy Reid opened up Monday's The ReidOut with an unhinged monologue directed at those who are critical of the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demonstrations on college campuses as she condemned those who seek an end to the illegal trespassing and compared the demonstrators to those who marched for civil rights back in the 60s.
  2830.  
  2831. Reid claimed, “The government and university presidents want you to know that the right to protest is a farce. You can be tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, tackled and thrown to the ground, and arrested. At Emory University, a shocking scene unfolded as Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers arrested protesters and released chemical agents on campus.”
  2832.  
  2833. Explaining a video that was being shown, Reid continued, “At least two videos have emerged of Emory professors getting arrested. This is Professor Noëlle McAfee who will join us in a few moments. The use of police force against these protesters should alarm you, and it mirrors the violence that is happening in Israel, with police responding to anti-war protesters there as well.”
  2834.  
  2835.  
  2836.  
  2837.  
  2838.  
  2839.  
  2840.  
  2841.  
  2842.  
  2843. Of course, Reid omitted that McAfee was arrested for disorderly conduct and not simply for being at a protest.
  2844.  
  2845. Moving right along, Reid went all in on the idea that young people must be taken seriously, not because they happen to have anything compelling to say, but because they are young, “Why would the state line up against our students who are the future? Especially young people like these, who are at some of the most prestigious universities in America, doing exactly what one is supposed to do in college, which is to think critically, stand up for what they believe in, and demand a better world.”
  2846.  
  2847. No. First of all, they are not thinking critically, they are simply regurgitating what their professors tell them. Second, if what you stand for is bigotry, hatred, and historical and geopolitical ignorance, you should not stand up for what you believe in, but repent instead.
  2848.  
  2849. Reid also wants to claim Israelis are being arrested for the same thing to neutralize allegations of anti-Semitism, but Israelis are protesting to bring home the hostages even if it means Hamas survives. These students are not doing that. In one of the photos Reid showed, someone was holding a sign that read "Zionism is ≠ not anti-Semitism,” but embarrassing double negatives aside, according to the State Department, under presidents of both parties, it is because anti-Zionism isn’t dislike of Benjamin Netanyahu, the current war, or Israeli administration of the West Bank, but the belief that Israel needs to be eradicated.
  2850.  
  2851. Somehow, Reid’s rantings were about to get even worse, “Students who are speaking out against atrocities they are seeing abroad, a war where Palestinians are getting killed in air strikes in areas that the Israeli military designated as safe zones.”
  2852.  
  2853. The fact that safe zones exist is proof of the protestor’s ignorance and lack of critical thinking. That Israel won’t let Hamas abuse them isn’t an indictment of Israel.
  2854.  
  2855. Still, Reid rolled on, “They're watching children starve while workers bringing desperately needed food are killed by sniper drones. Potential war crimes so appalling that Israel fears its leaders could soon face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court. 
  2856.  
  2857. Israel fears the ICC not because it has committed war crimes, but because it doesn’t trust the ICC to be impartial. Still, Reid finally got to the heart of the matter, “These actions are what these young people are protesting. As they did in reaction to Vietnam and the Iraq War, and during the Civil Rights Movement and against South African apartheid.”
  2858.  
  2859. There it is. There are no more legitimate civil rights battles to fight, so teaming up with anti-Semites is a small price to pay to satisfy their “Selma envy.”
  2860.  
  2861.  Here is a transcript for the April 29 show:
  2862.  
  2863.  
  2864. MSNBC The ReidOut
  2865.  
  2866. 4/29/2024
  2867.  
  2868. 7:05 PM ET
  2869.  
  2870. JOY REID: The government and university presidents want you to know that the right to protest is a farce. You can be tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, tackled and thrown to the ground, and arrested. At Emory University, a shocking scene unfolded as Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers arrested protesters and released chemical agents on campus. 
  2871.  
  2872. At least two videos have emerged of Emory professors getting arrested. This is professor Noëlle McAfee who will join us in a few moments. The use of police force against these protesters should alarm you, and it mirrors the violence that is happening in Israel, with police responding to anti-war protesters there as well. 
  2873.  
  2874. You have to wonder why. Why would the state line up against our students who are the future? Especially young people like these, who are at some of the most prestigious universities in America, doing exactly what one is supposed to do in college, which is to think critically, stand up for what they believe in, and demand a better world. 
  2875.  
  2876. Students who are speaking out against atrocities they are seeing abroad, a war where Palestinians are getting killed in air strikes in areas that the Israeli military designated as safe zones. They're watching children starve while workers bringing desperately needed food are killed by sniper drones. Potential war crimes so appalling that Israel fears its leaders could soon face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court. These actions are what these young people are protesting. As they did in reaction to Vietnam and the Iraq War, and during the Civil Rights Movement and against South African apartheid.
  2877. </description>
  2878.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 3:31 PM</pubDate>
  2879.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  2880.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283967</guid>
  2881.    </item>
  2882. <item>
  2883.  <title>The Left Needs Therapy &amp; After This, You Might Too</title>
  2884.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/04/30/left-needs-therapy-after-you-might-too</link>
  2885.  <description> Welcome to Woke of the Weak, where I’ll update you about the most woke, progressive, insane, and crazy clips and stories that the left thinks is tolerable and well, point out why exactly they’re nuts.
  2886.  
  2887. This week, we took a look at how much of the left would likely benefit from professional counseling…just not from the individual in the first clip where the user explained how he was a transgender lesbian who is also, somehow, a therapist. 
  2888.  
  2889. I would not recommend hiring him to learn how to think properly.
  2890.  
  2891. A different user used pink and blue sugar packets to explain that while he was assigned a blue sugar packet (a boy) he really feels like a pink sugar packet (a girl). He also insisted that doctors take an “educated guess” as to what your sex is when you’re born.
  2892.  
  2893. The next transformer proudly showed off her double mastectomy to affirm her gender as a boy, while the next explained how he felt like he entered the water at the beach as a boy and emerged from it as a girl.
  2894.  
  2895. A different freak yelled at kids and encouraged them to scream “free Palestine” while in his full-out drag queen costume.
  2896.  
  2897. “If you’re a drag queen and you know it, shout free Palestine,” he said.
  2898.  
  2899.  
  2900.  
  2901.  
  2902.  
  2903.  
  2904.  
  2905. It’s likely those kids will grow up to be like the students at Harvard University who replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag. Other Gaza protestors explained that they didn’t like white people. Unironically, those protestors were white.
  2906.  
  2907. There were a few more freaks that we saw this week, too. The first of the trio was an individual who lurked around completely covered in green paint and called it fashion, another was a drag queen who dropped it low at a high school in New Mexico and the third individual talked about “her” built in strap on.
  2908.  
  2909. Much of the left is struggling mentally and emotionally, and I think they could really benefit from some professional counseling. Honestly though, after seeing all that, I think I could too!</description>
  2910.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 3:21 PM</pubDate>
  2911.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  2912.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283966</guid>
  2913.    </item>
  2914. <item>
  2915.  <title>Networks BLACKOUT Columbia Students Wishing ‘Glory to All Our Martyrs’</title>
  2916.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/04/30/networks-blackout-columbia-students-wishing-glory-all-our</link>
  2917.  <description> Overnight, anti-Semitic/pro-Hamas extremists at Columbia – who’ve been chanting for the murder of Jews – took over an academic building. Come Tuesday morning, the liberal broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) hyped the development but conspicuously omitted the nastier details reported throughout the night: wishes for “glory to all our martyrs” (a.k.a. Hamas), assaulting other students who locked arms to stop them from breaking down the doors, and a report that they took a facility worker “hostage.”
  2918.  
  2919. “Despite warnings of suspension and expulsion for students involved in the encampment here at Columbia University, some pro-Palestinian protesters set up more tents on campus and stormed that academic building overnight. They say it is all in support of Gaza,” boasted ABC correspondent Stephanie Ramos during Good Morning America.
  2920.  
  2921. Adding: “Video capturing students slamming desks, breaking windows, and barricading themselves inside.”
  2922.  
  2923. Over on CBS Mornings, co-anchor Gayle King tried to downplay the illegal occupation of Hamilton Hall by noting the “building has been occupied many times over the years.” But she did tout that the pro-terrorist mob “hung a banner renaming Hamilton Hall for a little girl killed in Gaza;” while ignoring their “intifada” banner.
  2924.  
  2925. King also called it "the War on Gaza" as if the Palestinians didn't start the war with Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack.
  2926.  
  2927. “Social media footage shows dozens of masked protesters using a hammer to take over Hamilton Hall, a building at Columbia University, just before 1 a.m. The group can be seen inside running around, with some placing chairs and tables in front of the doors, barricading themselves in,” reported CBS correspondent Tom Hanson.
  2928.  
  2929.  
  2930.  
  2931.  
  2932.  
  2933.  
  2934.  
  2935.  
  2936.  
  2937. For NBC’s Today, correspondent George Solis noted the “intifada” banner but failed to explain that it meant the targeted killing of Jews. He also framed the occupation of the building as just a response to university officials suspending students for not dismantling the encampment:
  2938.  
  2939.  
  2940. Overnight, campus protests escalating. Demonstrators occupying a building at Columbia University smashing windows, barring the doors, and unfurling banners – including one reading intifada – after protesters circled the campus earlier in the night. The unrest coming just hours after the university started suspending students who refused to leave an encampment after a deadline had passed.
  2941.  
  2942.  
  2943. All three of them used the “social media footage” that was going around last night, but they all sanitized their reports by refusing to show or mention some of the more heinous things that occurred during the seizure of the building.
  2944.  
  2945. In addition to multiple reports that a message of “glory to all our martyrs” was put out by organizers of the encampment, there were videos of their leader Khymani James whipping up the crowd into a frenzy to violently assault three students who linked arms in an attempt to keep the mob from storming Hamilton Hall.
  2946.  
  2947.  
  2948.  
  2949.  
  2950. Here is video of him leading the mob to assault 3 students trying to protect the building. pic.twitter.com/du3OlsCqUo
  2951. — AG (@AGHamilton29) April 30, 2024
  2952.  
  2953.  
  2954. James was supposedly expelled from the university after a video circulated online of him giving a blood-thirsty rant against Jews.
  2955.  
  2956. Other videos showed 63-year-old “professional protest consultant” Lisa Fithian suggesting the students protecting the building were the “assholes” (above) and directing other students to flip large metal tables to barricade the doors.
  2957.  
  2958.  
  2959.  
  2960.  
  2961. BREAKING.🚨
  2962. All charges have been *DROPPED* against Pro-Hamas rioters who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University on Monday night.
  2963. Columbia U. refused to let NYPD in despite protesters allegedly committing unlawful detention, vandalism &amp; assault.pic.twitter.com/kwgFxWtmv6
  2964. — Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 30, 2024
  2965.  
  2966.  
  2967. Further excluded by the broadcast networks, Hen Mazzig, founder of the Tel Aviv Institute reported that the students held a university facilities worker “hostage” for a time
  2968.  
  2969.  
  2970.  
  2971.  
  2972. Protesters inside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University have hung banners reading “Intifada" after they vandalized and took over a university building last night.
  2973. A Columbia facilities worker was “held hostage” as students occupied the hall.
  2974. The university asked those "who can… pic.twitter.com/atUhOZq88G
  2975. — Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) April 30, 2024
  2976.  
  2977.  
  2978. The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
  2979.  
  2980.  
  2981. ABC’s Good Morning America
  2982. April 30, 2024
  2983. 7:02:58 a.m. Eastern
  2984.  
  2985. (…)
  2986.  
  2987. ROBIN ROBERTS: Take a look at the scene right now. Protesters on campus there in North Carolina. And then overnight protesters here in New York at Columbia barricaded themselves inside the school and now the university is taking more action. Stephanie Ramos is there on the scene for us. Good morning to you, Stephanie.
  2988.  
  2989. STEPHANIE RAMOS: Robin, good morning. Despite warnings of suspension and expulsion for students involved in the encampment here at Columbia University, some pro-Palestinian protesters set up more tents on campus and stormed that academic building overnight. They say it is all in support of Gaza.
  2990.  
  2991. [Cuts to video]
  2992.  
  2993. Overnight, pro-Palestinian protesters gathering outside Columbia University's Hamilton Hall and then storming the building. Video capturing students slamming desks, breaking windows, and barricading themselves inside. Just after 12:30 a.m. this morning, dozens left the encampment and entered the hall.
  2994.  
  2995. Students, defiant. Refusing to dismantle their encampment.
  2996.  
  2997. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER: You need to stop bombing. You need to stop the indiscriminate killing, massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. That's how you end the war.
  2998.  
  2999. (…)
  3000.  
  3001.  
  3002.  
  3003. CBS Mornings
  3004. April 30, 2024
  3005. 7:06:27 a.m. Eastern
  3006.  
  3007. GAYLE KING: Now to breaking news overnight, a major escalation in the protest at Columbia University where demonstrators against the War on Gaza have now broken into a building on campus. The group hung a banner renaming Hamilton Hall for a little girl killed in Gaza. That building has been occupied many times over the years. Tom Hanson is there at a very tense moment with police standing by.
  3008.  
  3009. Tom, good morning to you. It was tense all afternoon, yesterday. My heart was racing, watching that video on the campus yesterday afternoon.
  3010.  
  3011. TOM HANSON: That is an understatement. Gayle, good morning to you. Protests at Columbia University continued well into the night after the school began suspending protesting students refusing to leave their encampment, but those demonstrations escalated to an outright occupation of this campus building just behind me.
  3012.  
  3013. [Cuts to video]
  3014.  
  3015. Social media footage shows dozens of masked protesters using a hammer to take over Hamilton Hall, a building at Columbia University, just before 1 a.m. The group can be seen inside running around, with some placing chairs and tables in front of the doors, barricading themselves in. They also took the second floor, unraveling the building and reclaiming the building as Hind’s Hall in honor of a six-year-old girl who was killed in Gaza this year.
  3016.  
  3017. (…)
  3018.  
  3019.  
  3020.  
  3021. NBC’s Today
  3022. April 30, 2024
  3023. 7:03:28 a.m. Eastern
  3024.  
  3025. (…)
  3026.  
  3027. GEORGE SOLIS: Tensions here at Columbia University reaching a fervor pitch. Columbia Public Safety officials issuing that public advisory to most students and faculty urging them to avoid campus today after demonstrators took over the building on campus. It comes as that deadline for the voluntary dispersement of the encampment here on campus came and went. All this, as the campus clashes continue nationwide.
  3028.  
  3029. [Cuts to video]
  3030.  
  3031. Overnight, campus protests escalating. Demonstrators occupying a building at Columbia University smashing windows, barring the doors, and unfurling banners – including one reading intifada – after protesters circled the campus earlier in the night. The unrest coming just hours after the university started suspending students who refused to leave an encampment after a deadline had passed.
  3032.  
  3033. (…)
  3034. </description>
  3035.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 2:50 PM</pubDate>
  3036.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  3037.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283965</guid>
  3038.    </item>
  3039. <item>
  3040.  <title>Lessons From Other Campus Protests</title>
  3041.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/cal-thomas/2024/04/30/lessons-other-campus-protests</link>
  3042.  <description>The year was 1966 and Ronald Reagan was running for governor of California. A major part of his platform was to “clean up the mess at Berkeley” and other college campuses throughout the state that were experiencing protests and strikes over issues that included the military draft, civil rights and “women’s issues.” While not on a scale of the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, anti-America and Jewish hatred we are witnessing now on several college campuses, Reagan’s response could instruct current college presidents and admissions officers to quell the unrest.
  3043.  
  3044. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has preserved Reagan’s remarks and later actions as governor. In a campaign speech, Reagan said many leftist campus movements had transcended legitimate protest, with the actions of "beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates" having more to do "with rioting, with anarchy" than "academic freedom." He faulted university administrators and faculty, who "press their particular value judgments" on students, for "a leadership gap and a morality and decency gap" on campus, and suggested a code of conduct be imposed on faculty to "force them to serve as examples of good behavior and decency."
  3045.  
  3046. Morality, good behavior and decency appear to be electives, not requirements, on too many of today’s university campuses whose “students” (and apparently not all are students) are now running the institutions of what might be called lower learning.
  3047.  
  3048. Six months after becoming governor in 1967, Reagan wrote a letter to Glenn Dumke, chancellor of San Francisco State College, who opposed the unrest occurring on many California campuses. In it, Reagan condemned “these people and this trash” who used “the excuse of academic freedom and freedom of expression” to justify continuation of the protests. “We wouldn’t tolerate this kind of language in front of our families.” He called on Dumke to “lay down some rules of conduct and promised “you’d have (all the) backing I could give you.”
  3049.  
  3050. We need to hear more of this type of talk to counter the anarchists and hatred of Jews and Israel and support of terrorist organizations on today’s college campuses. Even more than talk, action is needed.
  3051.  
  3052. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Ira Stoll says the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Open Society Foundation headed by George Soros have been contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to leftist organizations that funnel money to groups that are behind these campus upheavals.
  3053.  
  3054. At a minimum the IRS should take a look at their tax-exempt status to see if they have violated regulations pertaining to what is allowable for nonprofits. The government should also look at whether any of those shouting antisemitic and anti-American slogans are here on student visas. If they are those visas should be revoked and the students deported. Others who are found guilty of giving aid and comfort to terrorists should be expelled.
  3055.  
  3056. Some wealthy donors to Columbia University and other schools have pledged to withdraw financial support if order and decorum are not restored.
  3057.  
  3058. All of this feeds the view that America is coming apart. Where are the leaders like Ronald Reagan who label this behavior for what it is and then do something about it?
  3059.  
  3060. Reagan ended his letter to Dumke with a question that should answer itself: “Hasn’t the time come to take on those neurotics in our faculty group and lay down some rules of conduct for the students comparable to what we’d expect in our own families?”
  3061.  
  3062. If that time had come in 1967, surely it is long past due in 2024.</description>
  3063.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 2:41 PM</pubDate>
  3064.    <dc:creator>Cal Thomas</dc:creator>
  3065.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283963</guid>
  3066.    </item>
  3067. <item>
  3068.  <title>Game Over: How Sweet Baby Inc.'s ‘Inclusion’ Push Is Ruining the Video Gaming Industry</title>
  3069.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/mac-geis/2024/04/30/game-over-how-sweet-baby-incs-inclusion-push-ruining-video-gaming</link>
  3070.  <description>What used to be an escape from an overly politicized world, the video games industry is slowly being reshaped in part by a development and consultation studio infecting the bloodstream with corporate liberalism run amok with a scam company operating as a way to bolster one’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) credentials.
  3071.  
  3072. Sweet Baby Inc. was founded in 2018 and works with video game studios to help "diversify" their new releases. The company's mission statement speaks volumes, reeking with buzzwords:
  3073.  
  3074.  
  3075. Founded in 2018, Sweet Baby Inc. is a narrative development and consultation studio based in Montreal and working around the globe. Our mission is to tell better, more empathetic stories while diversifying and enriching the video games industry. We aim to make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful, and more inclusive, for everyone.
  3076.  
  3077.  
  3078. “Empathetic,” “diversifying,” “more inclusive,” and “for everyone.” The only thing missing is the talk of multiple genders. Sweet Baby Inc. also claims that "you need diverse voices to solve diverse problems." To achieve alleged problems, they offer writing, narrative, representation, and development. In other words, pretty common components for a development consultant.
  3079.  
  3080. But as far as representation goes, one can only assume they mean no white characters. When a former Sweet Baby Inc. employee was presented with a design for a white character, she wrote, "fuck white people," on the graphic:
  3081.  
  3082.  
  3083. Dani LaLonders SWEET BABY INC graduate, her employee designed a white character and she responded back with "F*CK WHITE PEOPLE" pic.twitter.com/wZ2Tlk9Y9b
  3084. — BadSoundingSentences (@BadSoundingS) April 28, 2024
  3085.  
  3086.  
  3087. If that’s what bringing representation to video games looks like, surely they must excel in writing, narrative, and development! Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Sony's God of War: Ragnarok, and Warner Bros. Games' Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, are some major titles recently released that Sweet Baby Inc. has had their hand in making. Their scope of consultation goes beyond those studios and also includes the likes of Valve, Electronic Arts, 2K Studios, Xbox Game Studios, Square Enix, Wizards of the Coast, and many others. However, not every company has great success when going woke.
  3088.  
  3089. Unfortunately for the crew at Mimimi Games, they consulted with Sweet Baby Inc. on Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, and after costs outweighed their revenue, they closed their doors. Many people pointed to Sweet Baby Inc. as the reason why Mimimi Games shut down. With DEI tainting the world around us and now tainting the virtual world, one man who goes by Kabrutus, created a website that detects DEI in video games.
  3090.  
  3091. The site, deidetected.com, is a spawn from a Steam curator list titled "Sweet Baby Inc detected," which is simply a list of games available on the Steam marketplace. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. The curator list currently has over 350k followers and has garnered attacks on Kabrutus and others from Sweet Baby Inc. employees. 
  3092.  
  3093. But supporters of this shift in video games are trying to reframe the Sweet Baby Inc. backlash as a hate movement:
  3094.  
  3095.  
  3096. They are trying to reframe the Sweet Baby Inc. backlash as a hate movement.
  3097. Yes it was...on their part.
  3098. Don't let them forget SBI started it and never apologized. https://t.co/dsDDZ15hTS pic.twitter.com/klPpWHyLQq
  3099. — Grummz (@Grummz) April 24, 2024
  3100. These attacks come as no surprise when the Co-Founder of Sweet Baby Inc. had this to say at Game Developers Conference 2019:
  3101.  
  3102.  
  3103. The Co-Founder of Sweet Baby Inc Kim Belair proudly explains the method she uses to force bosses at game studios to censor, alter, and "diversify" game projects she feels are problematic - "Terrify them" aka threaten them with the anger of the cancel culture mob. pic.twitter.com/eFJZeKqSZd
  3104. — GamesNosh (@GamesNosh) March 4, 2024
  3105.  
  3106. So why are studios still working with Sweet Baby Inc.?
  3107.  
  3108.  
  3109. I think in order to get the proper funds from share holders, certain things need to be checked off. Consulting sweet baby inc might be one of them
  3110. — Mightykeef (@MightyKeef) April 24, 2024
  3111. </description>
  3112.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 2:12 PM</pubDate>
  3113.    <dc:creator>Mac Geis</dc:creator>
  3114.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283958</guid>
  3115.    </item>
  3116. <item>
  3117.  <title>PolitiFact Slaps False Label On Johnson's Criticism Of Columbia</title>
  3118.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/04/30/politifact-slaps-false-label-johnsons-criticism-columbia</link>
  3119.  <description>Amid the encampment at Columbia University, PolitiFact slapped the “false” label on Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday for declaring that the school advised Jewish students to stay away from campus. The only problem is that Johnson never explicitly claimed that they did, but rather that was the unstated implication of their hybrid learning plan.
  3120.  
  3121. Louis Jacobson writes, “Later, during an April 24 CNN interview that aired after his Columbia visit, Johnson said he was standing up for "Jewish students who are in fear of their lives, who were cowering in their apartments right now, who are not coming to class. In fact, the administration recognized the threat was so great, they canceled classes. Now they've come out with this hybrid idea. ‘Well, if you're Jewish, maybe you do want to stay at home. Maybe you'd be better off for you.’”
  3122.  
  3123. The NewsBusters write-up of that CNN interview can be found here. As for Jacobson, he continues, “Johnson called this attitude ‘so discriminatory. It's so wrong in every way. The responsibility of a university administrator is to keep peace on campus and ensure the safety of students — job No. 1.’"
  3124.  
  3125. He also writes, “Johnson’s comment prompted an April 25 post from a new account on X from the Columbia Journalism School devoted to fact-checking statements about the Columbia protests” and “The post quoted Columbia University's provost’s office, saying, "The university administration has not issued any directives or specific instructions to Jewish students about avoiding campus or taking classes remotely." Jacobson goes on to cite President Minouche Shafik stating her preference was for students who live off-campus to stay home.
  3126.  
  3127. As for that CJS account, they have managed to fact-check one Israeli professor and counter-protestor, Shai Davidai, for saying the protests prove Hamas is on campus claiming "There is currently no evidence of any member of Hamas on Columbia's campus" as if Hamas's ideology is absent or that no member of the faculty has ever praised Hamas. They also shamed Punchbowl/NBC's Jake Sherman for claiming that an anti-Semite was at Columbia when he was, in reality, just down the street. They can't be bothered to check any of the protestors incendiary claims about genocide, however. Still, there is also a significant discrepancy in Jacobson’s article versus the CJS. The CJS account claimed Johnson “suggests” the Columbia administration advised Jewish students to stay home, whereas Jacobson used the more definitive “said.” 
  3128.  
  3129. It is common for people to paraphrase others when they believe that they are trying to get away with saying something odorous in a polite way. Columbia explicitly advising Jewish students to stay home would be a P.R. disaster, meaning Johnson’s paraphrase was his way of citing what he thought the administration was really saying by their refusal to end the encampments against Israel and Zionists, which is just anyone who thinks Israel should exist.
  3130.  
  3131. Jacobson conceded that there was a Columbia-affiliated rabbi who urged Jewish students to stay home, making it possible that Johnson simply confused the rabbi with the administration. If that is true, then Jacobson should’ve written another one of PolitiFact’s explainer articles that do not feature the truth-o-meter. Speaking of the truth-o-meter-free explainer articles, Joe Biden has explicitly compared Republicans to Jim Crow, which Republicans, of course, deny. However, Jacobson couldn’t be bothered to pull out the truth-o-meter for that Biden claim, instead writing, “Some historians say Biden’s rhetorical point was justified as a way of highlighting the dangers of backsliding from hard-won voting rights.”</description>
  3132.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 1:17 PM</pubDate>
  3133.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  3134.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283962</guid>
  3135.    </item>
  3136. <item>
  3137.  <title>Scarborough Backtracks on Protesters: I Was Only Mocking 'White Woke Pampered Elitist' Kids</title>
  3138.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2024/04/30/scarborough-backtracks-protesters-i-was-only-mocking-white</link>
  3139.  <description> It wasn't exactly a mea culpa. But on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough did a modified walk-back of his strong criticism that we noted yesterday of campus protesters and the failure of administrators to discipline them, and how it will all lead to Biden  losing in November. 
  3140.  
  3141. Scarborough mentioned that after his comments yesterday, he had received critical comments from "well-intentioned" critics who said it was right to protest the Vietnam War, and right to protest Israel's war after the October 7 slaughter by Hamas. So he backtracked to suggest he only meant to mock rich white kids. [?]
  3142.  
  3143.  
  3144. I'm certainly not saying this of all the student protesters that are out there. And certainly not children of Palestinian families who have lost loved ones through the years in this war, in this conflict. I will say, though, among, again -- and I've spoken with some of them. I want to be careful.
  3145.  
  3146. But among these white, woke, pampered, elitist -- I'm not supposed to use that word. Let's say children from wealthy families that decide, as Dr. Brzezinski said so many years ago, that they're going to play radical for a weekend and then go home to Mommy and Daddy's mansion, there's a complete ignorance about the complexities of this issue.
  3147.  
  3148.  
  3149.  
  3150.  
  3151.  
  3152.  
  3153.  
  3154.  
  3155. Why did Scarborough single out "white," woke, elitists? Surely there are black and brown woke elitists who are cluelessly protesting on campus. Why does Scarborough give them a pass, hmmm?
  3156.  
  3157. Sounds like Scarborough is between the same rock and hard place as Biden: wanting to express solidarity with Israel, but without overly offending his left-wing base. 
  3158.  
  3159. Willie Geist then came in repeated everything Scarborough just said. "You go, guy!" Both Scarborough and Geist stressed that they have been very critical of Netanyahu's handling of the war -- which would seem to be required at MSNBC. 
  3160.  
  3161. To their credit, Scarborough and Geist did express that Jewish students don't feel safe on campus, and described how clueless many of the protesters are, with no understanding of the genocidal implications for Jews of "from the river to the sea," or of the generous two-state deal that Israel offered the Palestinians 2000, but which the Palestinians peremptorily rejected.  
  3162.  
  3163.  
  3164.  
  3165. Here's the transcript.
  3166.  
  3167.  
  3168. MSNBC
  3169. Morning Joe
  3170. 4/30/24
  3171. 6:11 am EDT
  3172.  
  3173. JOE SCARBOROUGH: I had a lot of nice, wonderful, well-intentioned people that watch this show, love this show, write me yesterday, and I wrote a lot of them back, called one or two back, saying, you know, Joe, the Vietnam war was a bad war, Joe; you were talking. And this Gaza thing, we understand the kids and what they're doing.
  3174.  
  3175. I understand, obviously, the protest to an unjust war. And we've, of course, been bitterly critical of Netanyahu's response in Gaza. So we understand all that. I'm curious what your thoughts are on -- and we're going to talk to Jonathan Greenblatt in one moment -- but how you balance that with not just outside agitators but also a rising sense of antisemitism on college campuses and social life.
  3176.  
  3177. And I will tell you, I know, I know first-hand from friends and family members that Jews are being pushed to the side socially. And, and that, that woke white girls and boys coming from elite families are telling their friends that they can't hang out with Jewish friends. 
  3178.  
  3179. And I could go on. I've been -- and maybe one of the reasons I was engaged as I was yesterday is, I've been hearing about this now for three, four, five, six months. Where Jewish students don't feel safe on college campuses. And this isn't a bubble wrap or snowflake moment. This is people talking about genocide, screaming at them as they try to go to their English class on campus.
  3180.  
  3181. . . . 
  3182.  
  3183. You know, Willie, the thing is, and I'm certainly not saying this of all the student protesters that are out there. And certainly not children of Palestinian families who have lost loved ones through the years in this war, in this conflict. I will say, though, among, again -- and I've spoken with some of them. I want to be careful.
  3184.  
  3185. But among these white, woke, pampered, elitist -- I'm not supposed to use that word. Let's say children from wealthy families that decide, as Dr. Brzezinski said so many years ago, that they're going to play radical for a weekend and then go home to mommy and daddy's mansion, there's a complete ignorance about the complexities of this issue. Now, of course, if you listen to the show, you would understand many of the complexities of this issue, because we have been really tough on Israeli officials that come on this show. We have asked why they've continued to allow illegal settlements in the West Bank over the decade. Why they have continued to fight against a two-state solution for peace. Why they have done what they have done in Gaza. Why they did with Hamas, why Netanyahu was Hamas' ally leading up to October the 7th.
  3186.  
  3187. So, it is very complicated. That's lost, though, in a lot of those things. And when you start talking about even West Bank settlements with a lot of these students, their eyes glaze over. They -- because that's not in the TikTok video. Again, I'm not saying this about all the students. But I will tell you, I'm saying it about a hell of a lot of students I have spoken with. When you go, well, you know, in 2000 there was an Oslo Accord where Bill Clinton had gotten together, and they were giving 97% of the West Bank to the Palestinians, and the other 3% they were going to make up with Israeli land. And they had figured out, you know, a capital in East Jerusalem.
  3188.  
  3189. And they sit there with their eyes glazed because they have no idea what happened in this peace process, what happened through the years. They just, they see something on TikTok, and they're like, Israel bad, and Hamas good. And they go out and they start shouting at Jews -- some.
  3190.  
  3191. WILLIE GEIST: Yeah, and you don't even have to go that deep. You can ask, what does it mean to chant, from the river to the sea, and they don't know.  And then when you tell them what it is, and we've seen this from reporters asking some of them --again, not all of them. Some of them have a deep understanding of this -- they don't understand that that means the elimination of the State of Israel and the people who live within that state.
  3192.  
  3193. So, I've been having a lot of these same conversations as you, Joe. So if you watch our show, you know how critical we've been of Netanyahu, of the prosecution of the war. That we grieve and mourn for children and women who have been killed in this war, that are starving in this war. It's a terrible, terrible thing. But that does not give kids on college campuses license to chant, from the river to the sea, and to say that Jewish kids should not exist, in some cases, at Columbia, for example.
  3194. </description>
  3195.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 12:52 PM</pubDate>
  3196.    <dc:creator>Mark Finkelstein</dc:creator>
  3197.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283957</guid>
  3198.    </item>
  3199. <item>
  3200.  <title>Daily Caller: White House 'Corrected' Biden Remarks 148 Times So Far This Year</title>
  3201.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/30/daily-caller-white-house-corrected-biden-remarks-148-times-so-far</link>
  3202.  <description> As we've pointed out how the networks typically ignore egregious gaffes by President Biden, Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese reports "White House communications staff has had to correct President Joe Biden’s public remarks at least 148 times since the beginning of 2024, a review of official White House transcripts shows."
  3203.  
  3204. The White House website posts transcripts whenever Biden gives a speech or takes questions. Reese explained the Caller looked at 118 statements, speeches and chats with reporters spanning from Jan. 1 to April 24. Communications staffers frequently correct, add to or alter Biden’s official remarks "to either bring them into compliance with official White House policy or, in some cases, reality, a Daily Caller analysis showed. In several cases, official statements had to be changed to convey the exact opposite of what Biden actually said." [Emphasis ours.]
  3205.  
  3206.  
  3207. “It was then, through no — through my American Rescue Plan — which every American [Republican] voted against, I might add — we made the largest investment in public safety ever,” the White House transcript of Biden’s March State of the Union address read.
  3208.  
  3209. ....“We must be honest: The threat to democracy must be defended [defeated],” another State of the Union excerpt reads.
  3210.  
  3211.  
  3212. Reese noted the hilarious Ron Burgundy-style Biden gaffe last week, reading too much from the Teleprompter. The Biden seemingly read the word “pause” off his screen, but the original White House transcript of the president’s remarks did not include the word “pause” — it said “(inaudible).” An updated version of the transcript now includes the president’s “pause” as well as the “(inaudible).”
  3213.  
  3214.  
  3215. “Four more years, PAUSE.”
  3216. Biden reads the instructions on the Teleprompter, which are always clearly marked, usually with lots of parentheses, meaning ‘dummy don’t say this part, is a command!’
  3217. Feel confident with this guy at the wheel??? pic.twitter.com/RUXA5jUkZM
  3218. — Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) April 29, 2024
  3219. For comparison, the Caller looked at a few transcripts of Trump's big events in 2020 to see how many edits or corrections the Trump staff made. (Some could argue Trump surely thinks every speech is the best ever, and wouldn't want staffers correcting it.) For the State of the Union, Biden staff made 13 edits, to zero for Trump staff. For the Earth Day speech, eight edits for Biden, zero for Trump. For the National Prayer Breakfast, eight edits for Biden, while "the Trump White House adjusted the transcript once when the former president missed one word in a quote."
  3220.  
  3221. The Daily Caller’s analysis does not include times that the White House altered transcripts without indicating there was a change -- "stealth editing."
  3222.  
  3223. Some had to adjust a claim on history: “I kept my promise to appoint the first Black [woman] Supreme Court justice,” the White House transcript reads from a Feb. 22 campaign reception.
  3224.  
  3225. PS: This addition of "historic" was curious: 
  3226.  
  3227.  
  3228. One White House transcript from Biden’s March 9 campaign event adds “historic” in front of a reference to Vice President Kamala Harris.
  3229.  
  3230. “Because unlike Donald Trump, I know who we are as Americans.  (Applause.)  It’s why I promised to have an administration that looks like America.  (Applause.) The most diverse Cabinet and administration in American history led by a [historic] Vice President,” the transcript reads.
  3231. </description>
  3232.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 11:56 AM</pubDate>
  3233.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  3234.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283956</guid>
  3235.    </item>
  3236. <item>
  3237.  <title>MRC’s Schneider on Newsmax, Blasts Columbia U. Pres: She’s on ‘Side of These Hamas Protesters’</title>
  3238.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/tom-olohan/2024/04/30/mrcs-schneider-newsmax-blasts-columbia-u-pres-shes-side-these</link>
  3239.  <description> MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider made clear that Columbia University’s limp-wristed response to protestors is a choice to surrender to the pro-Hamas mob. 
  3240.  
  3241. On the April 27 edition of Newsmax’s Saturday Report Schneider blasted Columbia University President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik for her response to anti-Semitic protests on her campus. “Look, this president has made it very clear that she is on the side of these Hamas protesters,” Schneider told Newsmax anchor Rita Cosby. “I think her own academic writing shows that she is very biased in favor of these radical terrorists.”
  3242.  
  3243. Some of the groups at the center of these campus protests such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are heavily funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. Soros gave $525,000 to JVP between 2017 and 2022 and $350,000 to JVP Action.  According to the New York Post, activists trained by Soros-funded organizations are currently involved in similar protests at several universities. He is also a huge donor to Columbia University. Soros’ Open Society Foundations has given $7,150,272 to Columbia University from 2016-2022. 
  3244.  
  3245.  
  3246.  
  3247.  
  3248.  
  3249. In response to a question from Cosby, Schneider made clear that much of what is going on at Columbia is not protected speech. “Conduct is not speech. And so, when these students have been violating the law, engaged in battery and assault—that’s a crime,” he added, before suggesting that the protestors were also trespassing.
  3250.  
  3251. Ultimately, Schneider held Shafik responsible for the chaos, anti-Semitism and support for terrorism on Columbia University’s campus: “The president of Columbia is in violation of the law too,” he said, explaining that Shafik had run afoul of the Civil Rights Act. “She is a lawbreaker as well. So, I can understand why these members of Congress are calling for her resignation.”
  3252.  
  3253. Schneider fleshed this point out after the interview, stating, “Jewish students have civil rights protection not to be harassed on campus and not to be denied the benefits that they have earned and paid for.” 
  3254.  
  3255. The Civil Rights Act prohibits harassment on the basis of religion, but Shafik has presided over relentless harassment of Jewish students, as alleged by several students. The situation at Columbia University is bad enough that a rabbi associated with Columbia University advised Jewish students to stay home rather than come to school. 
  3256.  
  3257. The Civil Rights Act also demands equal education opportunities for students, something that Columbia is currently failing to offer to Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus. This failure has led to several major donors, including Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, announcing that they will no longer donate to the university.  
  3258.  
  3259. Read More! NY Post Exposes Campus Activists Trained by Soros-Funded Group
  3260.  
  3261. Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report on campus anti-Semitism.</description>
  3262.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 11:33 AM</pubDate>
  3263.    <dc:creator>Tom Olohan</dc:creator>
  3264.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283960</guid>
  3265.    </item>
  3266. <item>
  3267.  <title>‘We Need You’ as ‘Mamala’; Here’s the Worst Moments From Drew Barrymore’s Kamala Chat</title>
  3268.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/04/30/we-need-you-mamala-heres-worst-moments-drew-barrymores-kamala-chat</link>
  3269.  <description>Vice President Kamala Harris’s taped interview with actress-turned-daytime-talk-show host Drew Barrymore aired Monday and while it was a brisk watch, it nonetheless remained a gag-tastic abomination as Barrymore sat Indian-style on her curvy couch and held hands with Harris as she gushed over the awkward far-left politician as America’s “Mamala” and someone the country “respects so much” who can be “a great protector”.
  3270.  
  3271. Well, unless you’re talking about unborn babies, (real) Christians, or those who possessed marijuana back when she was San Francisco district attorney. Because, in those cases, forget about it.
  3272.  
  3273.  
  3274.  
  3275.  
  3276.  
  3277.  
  3278.  
  3279.  
  3280.  
  3281. At the end of the first block, Barrymore almost broke down as, after Harris talked about her blended family with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and his daughters from his first marriage and that his girls call her “Mamala”, she proclaimed Harris should adopt the title for the whole country:
  3282.  
  3283.  
  3284. Well, that’s a great segue to say that I keep thinking in my head that we all need a mom. I’ve been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now, but in our country, we need you to be Mamala of the country. 
  3285.  
  3286.  
  3287. Amid raucous cheers and applause, Harris awkwardly drank it in like a villain receiving new powers: “I know. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah, no.”
  3288.  
  3289. Barrymore kept laying it on thick: “And as a woman who respects so much and wants to share and wants to be confident and has no ounce of meat that has competitiveness. When we lift each other up, we all rise.”
  3290.  
  3291. Harris’s bizarre infatuation with herself was on display as she responded to these compliments with, “that’s exactly right. That’s right, that’s right.”
  3292.  
  3293. She finally said more than words of affirmation (for herself) after Barrymore called her “a great protector (click “expand”):
  3294.  
  3295.  
  3296. Well you know, part of it is, I think that sadly over the last many years, there has been this kind of perverse approach to what strength looks like, which is to suggest that the measure of one’s strength is based on who you beat down, instead of what we know the true measure of your strength is based on who you lift up...You know, and — and if you ever want to measure, if you ever just want some indication — objective indication of your individual power, see what you can do to help other people, people in need. 
  3297.  
  3298. What — and it could be, you know, just a simple act, including just taking some interest and actually listening to how people are feeling and to sincerely — sincerely have some interest and care and concern about their well-being or their suffering. And I think we all know that’s what we want in each other. That’s what we want from leaders, but let’s be intentional about it and open about saying, you know, that’s really what strength looks like. And that’s the kind of strength that we want.
  3299.  
  3300.  
  3301. In the next block, Barrymore sounded off about her ongoing but futile life on the dating scene and asked if Harris could help find her a man because “you are Mamala” and Harris’s marriage to Emhoff was thanks to a friend setting them up.
  3302.  
  3303. After a block with taped questions from Emhoff about their dating history, the show was almost over and, with the time left, Barrymore told Harris, “I appreciate you more every single day. Not only thank you for going out and championing on behalf of all of us, but thank you for being the mother, the woman, the sister, and the daughter.”
  3304.  
  3305. Once again, Harris couldn’t seem to accept a compliment (even attributing her to being a mother when she has no children of her own) without being weird:
  3306.  
  3307.  
  3308. And friend and I love my — and I just — it’s really important. I think most of us — I — I will speak for myself. I could not do anything that I do on a daily basis, much less have arrived at this point, without an extraordinary network of friends. I mean, my best friend from kindergarten is still one of my best friends.
  3309.  
  3310.  
  3311. Harris added she “mentor[s] a lot of young women mostly, but young men also, and I say...choose to be around people who love you, who care about you, who are going to be honest with you.”
  3312.  
  3313. The Vice President then brought up how “my staff, for example, sometimes they’ll show me little things that just amuse me” such as “apparently, some people love to talk about the way I laugh”, but it was clearly Harris brought up not because it amused her, but it leaves her seething.
  3314.  
  3315. Barrymore cheered her up: “Oh, yes! I love your laugh!”
  3316.  
  3317. Harris defended her awkward, Disney villain-like cackle by saying she has her “mother’s laugh and I grew up around a bunch of women, in particular, who laughed from the belly”.
  3318.  
  3319. “I think it’s really important for us to remind each other and our younger ones, don’t be confined to other people’s perception about what this looks like,” she concluded.
  3320.  
  3321. With time running out and brain cells having been destroyed long before this, Barrymore gushed as she wrapped before signing off, “I love your laugh and I love that message.”
  3322.  
  3323. To see the relevant transcript from April 29, click “expand.”
  3324.  
  3325.  
  3326. The Drew Barrymore Show [via WJLA]
  3327. April 29, 2024
  3328. 3:06 p.m. Eastern
  3329.  
  3330. DREW BARRYMORE: Well, that’s —
  3331.  
  3332. VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: You have to sort that out.
  3333.  
  3334. BARRYMORE: — a great segue to say that I keep thinking in my head that we all need a mom. I’ve been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now, but in our country, we need you to be Mamala of the country. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
  3335.  
  3336. HARRIS: I know. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah, no.
  3337.  
  3338. BARRYMORE: And as a woman who respects so much and wants to share and wants to be confident and has no ounce of meat that has competitiveness.
  3339.  
  3340. HARRIS: Yeah.
  3341.  
  3342. BARRYMORE: When we lift each other up, we all rise.
  3343.  
  3344. HARRIS: That’s exactly right.  [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] That’s right, that’s right.
  3345.  
  3346. BARRYMORE: However, we need a great protector.
  3347.  
  3348. HARRIS: Yeah. Well you know, part of it is, I think that sadly over the last many years, there has been this kind of perverse approach to what strength looks like, which is to suggest that the measure of one’s strength is based on who you beat down, instead of what we know the true measure of your strength is based on who you lift up.
  3349.  
  3350. BARRYMORE: Yes.
  3351.  
  3352. HARRIS: Right?
  3353.  
  3354. BARRYMORE: Yes.
  3355.  
  3356. HARRIS: You know, and — and if you ever want to measure, if you ever just want some indication — objective indication of your individual power, see what you can do to help other people, people in need. What — and it could be, you know, just a simple act —
  3357.  
  3358. BARRYMORE: Yes.
  3359.  
  3360. HARRIS: — including just taking some interest and actually listening —
  3361.  
  3362. BARRYMORE: Yes.
  3363.  
  3364. HARRIS: — to how people are feeling and to sincerely — sincerely have some interest and care and concern about their well-being or their suffering. And I think we all know that’s what we want in each other. That’s what we want from leaders, but let’s be intentional about it and open about saying, you know, that’s really what strength looks like. And that’s the kind of strength that we want. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
  3365.  
  3366. (....)
  3367.  
  3368. 3:13 p.m. Eastern
  3369.  
  3370. BARRYMORE: However, getting to know each other first through questionnaires felt really exciting to me.
  3371.  
  3372. HARRIS: Yeah.
  3373.  
  3374. BARRYMORE: And we’ve lost the art of that. So there’s a college that has a blind questionnaire.
  3375.  
  3376. HARRIS: Mmmm.
  3377.  
  3378. BARRYMORE: [A]nd then they match you up with one person and you meet. And the success rate apparently is phenomenal. We just did a story about it.
  3379.  
  3380. HARRIS: Have you tried it?
  3381.  
  3382. BARRYMORE: I would like that opportunity. I never really got to go on a blind date, funny enough. I know. If someone set you up to — to I never have asked anyone to set me up. I never want to burden anyone with that, but you are Mamala. [LAUGHTER] If anyone comes to mind.
  3383.  
  3384. HARRIS: Okay, okay.
  3385.  
  3386. BARRYMORE: I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve never asked anyone.
  3387.  
  3388. HARRIS: I’m going to about it.
  3389.  
  3390. BARRYMORE: Oh my goodness.
  3391.  
  3392. HARRIS: I’ll think about it.
  3393.  
  3394. (....)
  3395.  
  3396. 3:26 p.m. Eastern
  3397.  
  3398. BARRYMORE: I appreciate you more every single day. Not only thank you for going out and championing on behalf of all of us, but thank you for being the mother, the woman, the sister, and the daughter
  3399.  
  3400. HARRIS: And friend and I love my — and I just — [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] — it’s really important. I think most of us — I — I will speak for myself. I could not do anything that I do on a daily basis, much less have arrived at this point, without an extraordinary network of friends. I mean, my best friend from kindergarten is still one of my best friends.
  3401.  
  3402. AUDIENCE: Awww.
  3403.  
  3404. HARRIS: And I think — and again, I mentor a lot of young women mostly, but young men also, and I say to them, you know, it’s really important — and I say this to everybody — choose to be around people who love you, who care about you, who are going to be honest with you. Like, girl you need a mint, you know? [LAUGHTER] People —
  3405.  
  3406. BARRYMORE: Deb!
  3407.  
  3408. HARRIS: — who will be like, you know, if you if you trip and fall, they’ll laugh with you, but then they’ll pick you back up and push you back out there. You know, you were asking me earlier about what it means to be, like, the first woman, and you know, it’s funny because people still got to get used to this, right? I mean, my staff, for example, sometimes they’ll show me little things that just amuse me. Like, apparently, some people love to talk about the way I laugh.
  3409.  
  3410. BARRYMORE: Oh, yes.
  3411.  
  3412. HARRIS: Ok.
  3413.  
  3414. BARRYMORE: I love your laugh.
  3415.  
  3416. HARRIS: Well, let me just tell you something. I have my mother’s laugh.
  3417.  
  3418. BARRYMORE: Awww!
  3419.  
  3420. HARRIS: And I grew up around a bunch of women, in particular, who laughed from the belly. They laughed. They would sit around the kitchen and HAD — drinking their coffee telling big stories with big laughs. You know, I’m never going to be hahahaha. Like, that’s just — [LAUGHTER] — I’m not that person and I think it’s really important for us to remind each other and our younger ones, don’t be confined to other people’s perception about what this looks like and who you — how you should act in order to be, right? It’s really important. It’s important. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
  3421.  
  3422. BARRYMORE: I love your laugh and I love that message.
  3423. </description>
  3424.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 11:26 AM</pubDate>
  3425.    <dc:creator>Curtis Houck</dc:creator>
  3426.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283959</guid>
  3427.    </item>
  3428. <item>
  3429.  <title>Stelter Acknowledges Anti-Semitism At Columbia, Urges No Judgement</title>
  3430.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/04/30/stelter-acknowledges-anti-semitism-columbia-urges-no-judgement</link>
  3431.  <description>Former CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter returned to the network on Monday’s CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip to acknowledge that while there have been insistences of anti-Semitism among the Columbia campers, “we should try to remain as free of judgment of the students as we can” because he, his fellow panelists, and most of his viewers used to be students as well.
  3432.  
  3433. Stelter was responding to National Review’s Reihan Salam, who took a radically different approach, “When you look at the Columbia campus, when you look at the UCLA campus and a number of other campuses, what you have is really violence, intimidation, harassment that has become really systematic and really quite terrifying.”
  3434.  
  3435.  
  3436.  
  3437.  
  3438.  
  3439.  
  3440.  
  3441.  
  3442.  
  3443. Not only did Salam go after the students, he also condemned the feckless school administration and the professors who support the students:
  3444.  
  3445.  
  3446. If you're someone who's at home and you're watching this unfold, then I think that you're thinking a lot about our supposedly elite institutions, institutions that are meant to lead our society, that are meant to be exemplars of knowledge and truth seeking, instead descending into this chaos because you have university leaderships that do not have backbone, that have not actually demonstrated real viewpoint neutrality. You have faculty members at Columbia who are cheering on students who are, again, just harassing, intimidating, threatening other students.”
  3447.  
  3448.  
  3449. This did not sit well with Phillip, who tried to divide the demonstrators into good guys and bad guys and contended that crackdown efforts are also targeting the former, “I do want to -- I mean, what is happening at Columbia, I mean, we have a little bit more visibility there. But there is a sense in which, now, and I think this is part of the point we were trying to illustrate, is that there are a lot of protesters who are doing none of those things that you just described and they're still being dragged off of the campus and put in handcuffs. So, both things are happening at the same time.”
  3450.  
  3451. Illegal trespassing and encampment is still illegal, even if you're not being violent or chanting anti-Semitic slogans. Nevertheless,  Stelter concurred, “This is happening across the country. And we're not hearing about all these other campuses where this is happening at the same time. I think it's right to criticize university leadership, but I think we should try to remain as free of judgment of the students as we can because many of us were students a long time ago. Students, it's a time for education. Education can be learned in a very hard way. Some of these students are getting a very hard, but very real education.”
  3452.  
  3453. Two things. First, the idea that college students should be free of judgment because they’re young and prone to make bad choices should only go so far. The idea that mass murder is wrong should not be something that a 20-something-year-old adult, who happens to be college student, needs to learn. Second, Stelter ignored Salam’s vital point about the faculty’s role in this. It’s one thing to say students should be better educated, but when the educators praise October 7, the education itself becomes the problem.
  3454.  
  3455. Stelter continued by claiming most demonstrators are just honest, upstanding people, and we need more like them, “I don't think these young people mostly are seeking global media attention. Some definitely are, by the way. Some definitely are. And there have been some hateful slogans chanted. But there are a lot of students now caught up in this who are not seeking that attention, who are just with their classmates. And, by the way, Bill Maher's right when he says that, you know, there's some narcissism that comes with activism. But I think as a country, we're better off with more protests, not less, as long as the safety concerns are acknowledged.”
  3456.  
  3457. No, we’d be better off with better protests, not more.
  3458.  
  3459. Here is a transcript for the April 29 show:
  3460.  
  3461.  
  3462. CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
  3463.  
  3464. 4/29/2024
  3465.  
  3466. 10:13 PM ET
  3467.  
  3468. REIHAN SALAM: When you look at the Columbia campus, when you look at the UCLA campus and a number of other campuses, what you have is really violence, intimidation, harassment that has become really systematic and really quite terrifying.
  3469.  
  3470. And if you're someone who's at home and you're watching this unfold, then I think that you're thinking a lot about our supposedly elite institutions, institutions that are meant to lead our society, that are meant to be exemplars of knowledge and truth seeking, instead descending into this chaos because you have university leaderships that do not have backbone, that have not actually demonstrated real viewpoint neutrality.
  3471.  
  3472. You have faculty members at Columbia who are cheering on students who are, again, just harassing, intimidating, threatening other students.
  3473.  
  3474. ABBY PHILLIP: I do want to -- I mean, what is happening at Columbia, I mean, we have a little bit more visibility there. But there is a sense in which, now, and I think this is part of the point we were trying to illustrate, is that there are a lot of protesters who are doing none of those things that you just described.
  3475.  
  3476. BRIAN STELTER: That's right.
  3477.  
  3478. PHILLIP: And they're still being dragged off of the campus and put in handcuffs. So, both things are happening at the same time.
  3479.  
  3480. STELTER: This is happening across the country. And we're not hearing about all these other campuses where this is happening at the same time. I think it's right to criticize university leadership, but I think we should try to remain as free of judgment of the students as we can because many of us were students a long time ago. Students, it's a time for education. Education can be learned in a very hard way. Some of these students are getting a very hard, but very real education.
  3481.  
  3482. I don't think these young people mostly are seeking global media attention. Some definitely are, by the way. Some definitely are. And there have been some hateful slogans chanted. But there are a lot of students now caught up in this who are not seeking that attention, who are just with their classmates.
  3483.  
  3484. And, by the way, Bill Maher's right when he says that, you know, there's some narcissism that comes with activism. But I think as a country, we're better off with more protests, not less, as long as the safety concerns are acknowledged.
  3485. </description>
  3486.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 10:15 AM</pubDate>
  3487.    <dc:creator>Alex Christy</dc:creator>
  3488.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283955</guid>
  3489.    </item>
  3490. <item>
  3491.  <title>7 Times Big Tech Censored Content Exposing Radical Islamic Extremism</title>
  3492.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/catherine-salgado/2024/04/30/7-times-big-tech-censored-content-exposing-radical</link>
  3493.  <description>Big Tech has not only run cover for leftists, but, over the years, it has censored content exposing radical Islamic extremism.
  3494.  
  3495. From 2018 to April 2024, individuals discussing or providing evidence on radical Islam have found themselves facing various forms of censorship on Big Tech platforms. These include financial censorship, deleted content and locked accounts. From communist Chinese government-tied TikTok to Google, Meta, PayPal and Amazon, below are seven examples of Big Tech censoring information on radical Islamic extremism and its destructive aftermath.
  3496.  
  3497. Instagram and TikTok targeted videos exposing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities.Soon after the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians triggered an ongoing conflict, actor Nathaniel Buzolic accused Meta-owned Instagram and communist Chinese government-tied TikTok of censoring content that served to shield radical Islamic extremism. Buzolic told Fox News that Instagram shut down his account no fewer than three different times for videos about the Hamas atrocities. He also said TikTok accused him of spreading “false information” and took down a video the actor shared of a child being kidnapped in Gaza. TikTok actually even boasted about removing 500,000 videos related to the Hamas-Israel war. Buzolic, who is strongly pro-Israel, insisted that “pro-Palestinian propaganda” cleverly manipulates Big Tech platforms. TikTok’s parent company is ByteDance, in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls a board seat and maintains a financial stake.
  3498.  
  3499. Google’s chatbot downplayed evidence of radical Islamic terrorists raping Israeli women. MRC Free Speech America exclusively caught Google’s biased artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Gemini, whitewashing the sexual violence carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7. When asked about documented evidence of Hamas rape of Israelis during the heinous terror attack, Gemini pontificated, “Some people believe that these allegations are credible, while others believe that they are politically motivated.” A Google spokesperson subsequently confessedGemini gave the wrong response and needed to be fixed, stating, “Gemini got this wrong and missed the mark on this important and sensitive topic.”
  3500.  
  3501. Facebook censored show for exposing threat of radical Islamic terrorism in the U.S. Meta-owned Facebook censored Front Page Magazine Editor and Glazov Gang show host Jamie Glazov’s account in April over an interview headlined “Oct. 7 Coming to the USA?” Glazov and his guests talked about reports that terrorists have infiltrated America due to the border crisis. In contrast to this censorship, Meta’s Oversight Board issued a 2023 decisionthat the term “shaheed” or martyr, often used by Muslims to refer to individuals killed while engaging in terrorism, was usually protected by freedom of expression. But Glazov, according to Front Page Magazine, was accused of violating “community standards” and threatening “the security of people on Facebook.”
  3502.  
  3503. YouTube removed a video of the 9/11 radical Islamic terrorism attacks on the 20-year anniversary. Google-owned YouTube removeda video posted on Sept. 11, 2021 by ACT for America associate Emma Blair. The videodisplayed footage from the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, along with archived audio recordings of people trapped both in the Twin Towers and on the hijacked planes. In a notice to Blair, YouTube claimed that the video violated its violent criminal organizations policy, though the platform added it wouldn’t be levying a strike against her channel. YouTube later reversed its decision, and restored the video to Blair's channel.
  3504.  
  3505. Amazon de-listed a book on alleged subversive radical Islamic extremist activity. In Sept. 2023, Amazon removed RealClear Investigations reporter Paul Sperry's 2008 book titled “Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington.” Users who click the link that formerly led to his book, are met with a notice reading, “Sorry we couldn't find that page[.] Try searching or go to Amazon's home page.” Sperry decried the censorship on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Amazon has secretly de-listed my bestselling book, 'Infiltration' (exposing how Saudi Embassy set up terror fronts and mosques around the Beltway) after I broke stories about the conflicts and biases of the Nat'l Editor &amp; Fact Checker of the Wash Post, owned by AMAZON.” 
  3506.  
  3507. PayPal and GoFundMe financially censored a website focused on reporting radical Islamic terrorism. PayPal shut down the account for Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch in 2018, Spencer told MRC Free Speech America. “PayPal banned Jihad Watch in 2018 but reinstated us after a public outcry,” Spencer stated. He suggested that this was only one of multiple instances of Big Tech censorship against the site, however. GoFundMe also censored Jihad Watch, banning the site from utilizing its services. Spencer further detailed that other platforms, including Amazon, Google, Patreon, Facebook and Twitter, have also censored the website.
  3508.  
  3509. Front Page Magazine says Google restricted its advertising revenue over a report on a Muslim terrorist attack. Front Page recently reported that Google Ads censored the magazine when it rejected the outlet’s application to use the Google AdSense advertising program. The tech giant reportedly accused Front Page of “dangerous or derogatory content,” according to a March 2024 FrontPage Magazine report. The outlet reported that one of the articles Google objected to was a 2021 piece, “Remember The San Bernardino Fourteen,” which provided details about a devastating and deadly 2015 terror attack in California. The article also argued that the terrorists’ radical Islamic beliefs were a key factor in driving the attack.</description>
  3510.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 8:20 AM</pubDate>
  3511.    <dc:creator>Catherine Salgado</dc:creator>
  3512.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283953</guid>
  3513.    </item>
  3514. <item>
  3515.  <title>Velma Season 2 Adds Anti-Catholic Bigotry to Its Hatefest</title>
  3516.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/elise-ehrhard/2024/04/30/velma-season-2-adds-anti-catholic-bigotry-its-hatefest</link>
  3517.  <description>Last year, Max released Velma, an animated adult "reimagining" of the Scooby Doo franchise that became one of the most hated series in the history of television. On Thursday, April 25, Max premiered a second season of Velma that is almost as bad as the first.
  3518.  
  3519. Produced by Mindy Kaling, Velma is riddled with unfunny hostility toward men, particularly white men as embodied in Velma's doofus version of Fred (Glenn Howerton). Fred is a dumb and infantilized character who is routinely mocked.
  3520.  
  3521. Season two's plot is about a serial killer targeting white middle-aged men. The killer chops off the victims' penises.
  3522.  
  3523. Season One ended with a horrifying scene in which Velma twerked over the corpse of Fred's mother after she was killed in an accident. Season two's violence is no less vulgar.
  3524.  
  3525. In this new season, Fred becomes attracted to Catholicism and larps as a fake priest. His newfound interest in Catholicism, which he uses to promote his "spooky stuff hunting business," becomes a launchpad for insulting the Catholic Church.
  3526.  
  3527. After Velma (Mindy Kaling) rigs a school lottery to get paired with Fred for an activity, her violation of school tradition somehow turns into dialogue on Catholics.
  3528.  
  3529.  
  3530.  
  3531.  
  3532.  
  3533.  
  3534. Fred: I know you rigged this, Velma. If there's one thing rich people know, it's cheating.
  3535.  
  3536. Velma: There are more important things than tradition.
  3537.  
  3538. Fred: No, there aren't. Look at the Catholics. We used to control the world. But then, Martin Luther was all like, 'Let's ignore traditions.'  And now, we only control Boston and the Supreme Court.
  3539.  
  3540. Velma: Exactly. Tradition, religion, superstition. When you remove the fun hats and free wine, they're just about controlling people with fear.
  3541.  
  3542.  
  3543. The local church priest is a drunkard who is secretly part of a government conspiracy that created a super-villain. The priest becomes one of the men murdered and castrated by the villain.
  3544.  
  3545. The series also mocks the sacrament of confession. Fred sits in the confessional and pretends to be a priest, but instead falls in love with the old lady on the other side of the screen confessing her sins. 
  3546.  
  3547. In contrast to the moronic "Catholic" characters, an occultist heroine named Amber (Sara Ramirez) befriends members of the mystery-solving group and proves to be smart and intuitive. Amber is "non-binary" and uses "they/them" pronouns. She is a proud "witch" who draws pentagrams and practices seances. 
  3548.  
  3549. Like season one, the plot of Velma's second season is too convoluted to unpack and nearly impossible to either follow or care about. Dialogue tosses in casual references to anti-capitalism and random praise for left-wing heroes like Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer and former First Lady Michelle Obama. There is little rhyme or reason to these woke insertions. 
  3550.  
  3551. Velma has zero redeeming qualities even by the standards of contemporary television. Its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes as of April 30 is 11%.
  3552.  
  3553. Max had heavily promoted the first season of Velma, but this second season dropped with little fanfare. Considering how little the streaming service marketed the second season, a third installment seems unlikely. If so, good riddance. The series is unredeemable.</description>
  3554.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 4:49 AM</pubDate>
  3555.    <dc:creator>Elise Ehrhard</dc:creator>
  3556.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283954</guid>
  3557.    </item>
  3558. <item>
  3559.  <title>CBS News Panics Over Battleground DOOM Poll</title>
  3560.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/04/30/cbs-news-panics-over-battleground-doom-poll</link>
  3561.  <description>CBS News has added a latest installment to their ongoing series of panicked items conveying the current state of the race: a recap of their own poll showing former President Trump garnering greater trust on the economy in three key battleground states: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The poll was covered as part of White House correspondent Weijia Jiang’s daily wrapup.
  3562.  
  3563. Watch the report in its entirety, as aired on CBS Evening News on Monday, April 29th, 2024:
  3564.  
  3565.  
  3566.  
  3567.  
  3568.  
  3569.  
  3570. NORAH O’DONNELL: The race for president is coming into sharper focus with the CBS News Battleground Tracker poll showing President Biden and former President Donald Trump running neck and neck in three key states. CBS's Weijia Jiang has details from the White House.
  3571.  
  3572. WEIJIA JIANG: Tonight, the Biden campaign is facing warning signs in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
  3573.  
  3574. JOE BIDEN: You are my ticket to The White House. You, Pennsylvania. It's not hyperbole.
  3575.  
  3576. JIANG: Rising prices have made the economy a top concern for voters. And in a new CBS poll, when asked if they would be financially better off under Biden or Trump, voters chose the former president by a sizable margin in each of the three states. 
  3577.  
  3578. Registered voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania believe that they would be better financially off if Trump wins. How do you explain that? 
  3579.  
  3580. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: The pandemic caused inflation to rise, caused damages to the supply chain. And so that's why the president took action and we also understand that prices are still too high. They’re still too high.
  3581.  
  3582. JIANG: More than 60% of voters in the three battlegrounds say that the economy was good during the Trump administration.
  3583.  
  3584. DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to have a big victory. The polls are looking tremendous -- Michigan and Wisconsin.
  3585.  
  3586. JIANG: The former president will campaign in those two states Wednesday, when his so-called hush money trial takes the day off. Still lagging behind Biden in fundraising, Trump had a private meeting Sunday with his primary rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has told allies he’s willing to raise money for the man who attacked him relentlessly.
  3587.  
  3588. TRUMP: We’re up by 40 points over DeSanctimonious.
  3589.  
  3590. JIANG: As Trump continues his search for a running mate, sources say one contender’s stock has dropped. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem. She’s under fire for revealing in a new book that she shot her dog Cricket after it misbehaved on a hunting trip, killed some chickens and bit Noem herself. 
  3591.  
  3592. Governor Noem is defending her actions, citing a South Dakota law that says that dogs that attack and kill livestock can be put down. She said the animal had bitten people before and that she was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor. Norah.
  3593.  
  3594. O’DONNELL: Weijia Jiang, thank you.
  3595.  
  3596.  
  3597. It is telling that the report opens with President Joe Biden begging for votes in Pennsylvania. What is different is that there is no covering this poll by meeting with voters from each of these states. When Jiang rattles off the poll’s findings, there is no sense of what the voters are thinking.
  3598.  
  3599. The only perspective offered is that of the White House, as Jiang plays back her question to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who proceeded to offer platitudes on inflation:
  3600.  
  3601.  
  3602. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: The pandemic caused inflation to rise, caused damages to the supply chain. And so that's why the president took action and we also understand that prices are still too high. They’re still too high.
  3603.  
  3604.  
  3605. This was the only perspective that aired outside of Jiang’s reporting. The report then shifted to gossip, namely the purported Trump-DeSants meeting in Miami, and reports of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s dog-killing past. 
  3606.  
  3607. The big takeaway from this story, though, is the sense of nervousness over the CBS poll, and voters in each of these swing states passing judgment on inflation and Bidenomics, despite the media’s best efforts to Protect the Precious.</description>
  3608.  <pubDate>April 30th, 2024 1:15 AM</pubDate>
  3609.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  3610.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283952</guid>
  3611.    </item>
  3612. <item>
  3613.  <title>NBC Does Another Bidenomics-Related Story With No Mention Of Biden or Bidenomics</title>
  3614.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/04/29/nbc-does-another-bidenomics-related-story-no-mention-biden-or</link>
  3615.  <description>If you watch closely, a new theme is emerging among the corporate media: the publication of stories related to the economy which describe something that is worse now than four years ago due to Bidenomics, without ever mentioning President Biden or Bidenomics. The most recent example comes via NBC News in a report on the current advantages of renting versus home ownership.
  3616.  
  3617. Watch the report in its entirety, as aired on NBC Nightly News on Monday, April 29th, 2024 (click “expand”):  
  3618.  
  3619.  
  3620.  
  3621.  
  3622.  
  3623.  
  3624. LESTER HOLT: It's an age-old question, and so many people are asking it in this tight housing market. Should you rent or buy a home? CNBC's Diana Olick now with a new report just out about that, and it may surprise you.
  3625.  
  3626. DIANA OLICK: Claire Murray has been renting for almost a decade. The 30-year-old pharmaceutical researcher says she can afford to buy a home but isn't sure it's the right investment for her.
  3627.  
  3628. CLAIRE MURRAY: I have seen the economy change. I have seen the house market really balloon up in a way that kind of scares me from buying a home right now.
  3629.  
  3630. OLICK: Home ownership has become so expensive that renting a home is now cheaper than buying one in all 50 of the largest U.S. cities, according to a new report from Bankrate.
  3631.  
  3632. ALEX GAILEY: Buying a home is pretty expensive due to high mortgage rates, high home prices, and there's also a lot of competition in the market because there is low inventory.
  3633.  
  3634. OLICK: The monthly mortgage payment for a median priced home, which is around $412,000, was $2,703 as of February of this year. That includes property taxes and insurance. Compare that to the national monthly rent of $1,979, which includes renter's insurance. That's a 37% gap between the two. In some cities that gap is even wider including San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Austin, Denver and Dallas. Cities with the smallest gaps, though still more expensive to own, include Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis and Tampa. It's all giving today's renters a different take on the so-called dream of home ownership.
  3635.  
  3636. MURRAY: I think renting can also be a good financial decision. And I don't know if society's always viewed it that way.
  3637.  
  3638. OLICK: While the math shows renting is cheaper, it doesn't factor home appreciation into the equation. Historically, home prices have gone up over time, making home ownership one of the best ways to build wealth. Lester.
  3639.  
  3640. HOLT: Diana Olick. Thank you. 
  3641.  
  3642.  
  3643. The most recent instance of such stellar Biden-protective reporting came a little over a week ago, when CBS Weekend News ran a story on the high costs of auto ownership: from vehicle prices to the cost of even basic car insurance. This report went the entirety of its time without ever mentioning Biden or Bidenomics, as if the inflation that caused car (and insurance) prices to skyrocket just happened organically.
  3644.  
  3645. We now see the same dynamics at play in this report that sells being a renter, and not actually a homeowner, as a net positive.
  3646.  
  3647. Why is being a renter suddenly more advantageous than home ownership, which at one time was considered fundamental to individual attainment of the American Dream? Due to the high cost of home ownership, to  wit: high prices and high costs of insurance. And what happened to make home prices skyrocket? Why did insurance get so expensive? We never hear those answers to problems that are presented to the viewer as calamities disembodied from the current environment.
  3648.  
  3649. There is no mention of the effects of inflation on the costs of home ownership, on the increase in construction and compliance costs, or on today’s high mortgage rates. How much of the tightness in the inventory market is caused by homeowners hanging on to their low rates from nearly a decade ago? We aren’t told.
  3650.  
  3651. “Biden” and “Bidenomics” emerge unscathed from this report. Once again, the media go into "Protect the Precious" mode in order shield President Biden from any accountability over his performance on matters pertaining to the economy. to The title “Regime Media” is well-earned.
  3652.  
  3653.  </description>
  3654.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 11:27 PM</pubDate>
  3655.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  3656.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283951</guid>
  3657.    </item>
  3658. <item>
  3659.  <title>NewsBusters Podcast: The Self-Love Flows at Reporter Party with Biden</title>
  3660.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/29/newsbusters-podcast-self-love-flows-reporter-party-biden</link>
  3661.  <description> The White House Correspondents Dinner airs live on CNN, with hours of journalists honoring themselves and how essential they are to America and to democracy. Who needs this? At dinners like this, they suggest they work in the noblest profession, and somehow it isn't encrusted with egotism and self-righteousness.
  3662.  
  3663. We all know the way this works. The White House Correspondents Association typically hires a leftist comedian no matter which party is in control of the White House. Because leftist comedians are the ones who leftist journalists think are funny. This year it was Colin Jost, a fake-news anchor on Saturday Night Live. Back in 2009, the WHCA brought in Wanda Sykes to honor the Obamas and to rip Rush Limbaugh to compare him to Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers and say "I hope his kidneys fail."
  3664.  
  3665. In 2017, comedian Hasan Minhaj called Donald Trump the "Liar-in-Chief" and said to the press, "You are his biggest enemy -- journalists, ISIS, normal-length ties. And somehow, you're the bad guys. That's why you gotta keep your foot on the gas."
  3666.  
  3667. This year, it was President Biden that was telling all the reporters in the room that they have to get tougher on Trump, because he said he would be a dictator on Day One and he "promised a bloodbath when he loses again." Biden had zero-fear of the "fact checkers," since they're all assigned to monitoring Trump on a daily basis.  He joked about being a dictator to Sean Hannity, and his "bloodbath" was what Biden would do to the economy in a second term.
  3668.  
  3669. Biden told the media he wasn't asking them to take sides....and yet democracy was at stake, so they better take sides. The next day, ABC's George Stephanopoulos uncorked a passionate Democrat editorial at the start of the show, touting how "no American president" faced criminal trials and other legal troubles, warning against how this could be "numbing" for voters (because Trump isn't losing by 30 points like they want). He couldn't talk about how all of Trump's prosecutors are Democrats desperately trying to bankrupt Trump or put Trump in jail, preferably before the election. 
  3670.  
  3671. Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 
  3672.  
  3673.  
  3674.  
  3675. </description>
  3676.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 10:52 PM</pubDate>
  3677.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  3678.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283950</guid>
  3679.    </item>
  3680. <item>
  3681.  <title>Washington Examiner’s ‘Liberal Media Scream’ With the MRC’s Assessment</title>
  3682.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brent-baker/2024/04/29/washington-examiners-liberal-media-scream-mrcs-assessment</link>
  3683.  <description> Since late January of 2012, the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard has once a week featured a “Mainstream Media Scream” selection in his “Washington Secrets” column. For each pick, usually posted online on Monday, I provide an explanation and recommend a “scream” rating (scale of one to five).
  3684.  
  3685. This post contains the “Liberal Media Screams” starting in January 2023.
  3686.  
  3687. &gt; For 2021 and 2022, for all of 2020. For all of 2019. For all of  2018. (Re-named “Liberal Media Scream” as of June 11, 2018.) “Mainstream Media Screams” for:
  3688.  
  3689. &gt; July-December 2017 posts; January through June 2017; July to December 2016; for January to June 2016; for July to December 2015; for January to June 2015. (2012-2014 are featured on MRC.org: For 2014; for June 17, 2013 through the end of 2013. And for January 31, 2012 through June 11, 2013.)
  3690.  
  3691.  
  3692.  
  3693. Check Bedard’s “Washington Secrets” blog for the latest choice and his other Washington insider posts. Each week, this page will be updated with Bedard’s latest example of the worst bias of the week.
  3694.  
  3695. (For more of the worst liberal media bias, browse the Media Research Center's Notable Quotables with compilations of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media.)
  3696.  
  3697.  
  3698.  
  3699. ■ New on April 29: Liberal Media Scream: Could you cry more, George Stephanopoulos?
  3700.  
  3701. See the posting on the Washington Examiner's site where you can watch the video and read Baker's assessment. A week later, Bedard's article will be posted here.
  3702.  
  3703.  
  3704.  
  3705. ■ April 22: Liberal Media Scream: Historian Meacham says ‘patriotism’ demands Biden win
  3706.  
  3707. (Washington Examiner post)
  3708.  
  3709.  
  3710. This week’s Liberal Media Scream is a rare five-screamer featuring a liberal journalist turned “historian” and biographer claiming that voter patriotism demands reelecting President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump.
  3711.  
  3712. Jon Meacham, the former top editor of Newsweek, said on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, “Patriotism is allegiance to an idea. It’s not just an allegiance to your own kind. That’s nationalism. Trump is a nationalist. President Biden is a patriot.”
  3713.  
  3714. Talking more like an East Coast elitist than a Tennessee native, the liberal analyst added with seriousness, “I’m lucky in that I don’t have particular policy passions, particular issues.”
  3715.  
  3716. And he included a condescending little jab at his home state. “I want the constitutional order to continue to unfold, and President Biden is devoted to that constitutional order. Donald Trump is self-evidently not. And I would say to my Republican friends — and I live in Tennessee, so that’s redundant — that it is, in fact, a moral question.”
  3717.  
  3718. Here is Meacham, on Real Time with Bill Maher, reacting to the news that former Attorney General William Barr (a Trump critic) will vote for his former boss:
  3719.  
  3720. JON MEACHAM: What Barr is doing, and what so many — I sometimes think of them as the Peter Millar Republicans, right, these are Republicans who are not full MAGA people, they’re men’s grill types who don’t want Democrats picking judges or setting tax rates.
  3721.  
  3722. They talked themselves into this twice. In ’16 and in ’20. And then came December and January of 2020 and 2021, and, at that point, I believe, and I say this with care, that it is become evident, to me, anyway, that there is a patriotic duty to support President Biden against Donald Trump for this reason: Patriotism is allegiance to an idea. It’s not just an allegiance to your own kind. That’s nationalism. Trump is a nationalist. President Biden is a patriot, and I’m lucky in that I don’t have particular policy passions, particular issues. I want the constitutional order to continue to unfold, and President Biden is devoted to that constitutional order. Donald Trump is self-evidently not. And I would say to my Republican friends — and I live in Tennessee, so that’s redundant — that it is, in fact, a moral question….
  3723.  
  3724. To me, the interesting thing about the Republican Party is if you are, in fact, going to put partisanship as your central organizing principle, if reflexive partisanship is the most important thing — I would argue that you need to go back and read George Washington’s farewell address. You need to read the founders that otherwise, you know, they love.
  3725.  
  3726. You know, they love the founders when they can move it around to agree with them. It’s very clear that if party spirit became the organizing principle, that, that was going to be fatal to the Constitution, and it’s very interesting when Barr said it’s “suicide.” The idea that President Biden is leading us to national suicide. I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but Lincoln used that image in his first major speech in the 1830s. He said if we ever fall, it’s not going to be from a foreign foe: It’s going to be from someone internally rising up and mastering those passions. And those passions about partisanship, that’s what’s ruining us.
  3727.  
  3728.  
  3729.  
  3730.  
  3731.  
  3732. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Could Meacham be any more condescending and elitist? So much for the pretense of being a journalist and not a partisan activist. His take: I’ve decided which candidate is bad for America, so if you vote for that one, you are not only not a patriot, but you will bring about the destruction of the nation. And he wonders why his neighbors in Tennessee don’t appreciate him for denouncing them as on ‘the wrong side’ of ‘a moral question.’ I bet they have a lot more respect for his views than he does for theirs.”
  3733.  
  3734. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  3735.  
  3736.  
  3737.  
  3738.  
  3739. ■ April 15: No Liberal Media Scream this week.
  3740.  
  3741.  
  3742.  
  3743. ■ April 8: Liberal Media Scream: Joy Reid wants prison, not airport, named for Trump
  3744.  
  3745. (Washington Examiner post)
  3746.  
  3747.  
  3748. This week’s Liberal Media Scream revealed again just how easy it is to make cable TV hosts suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” go nuts.
  3749.  
  3750. With Congress on Easter break, there wasn’t much Capitol Hill news last week. So when a report was posted about a GOP proposal to rename Dulles International Airport after former President Donald Trump, MSBNC turned all its guns on the idea.
  3751.  
  3752. On the ReidOut, host Joy Reid said it was bad enough that the “worst” airport in America is named after Eisenhower-era Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. “Let’s make it worse” by naming it for Trump, she said.
  3753.  
  3754. Instead, she suggested that Trump’s name be put on a Miami prison, a reference to the legal cases he faces, one in Florida.
  3755.  
  3756. She and her guests, including Ali Velshi and Fordham University professor Christina Greer, piled on. Greer even bashed Washington’s national airport being renamed after former President Ronald Reagan. Reid said, “Yeah, I just call it ‘DCA.'”
  3757.  
  3758. From Friday’s The ReidOut on MSNBC:
  3759.  
  3760. JOY REID: Let’s talk a little about this idea of renaming Dulles. Now, Dulles is not the best airport — it might be the worst airport in America. The Republicans are like, “Let’s name it after Donald Trump.” I love the fact that it’s named after one of the most diabolical secretaries of state who destroyed Iran and a bunch of Central America.
  3761.  
  3762. ALI VELSHI: But let’s make that worse.
  3763.  
  3764. REID: Let’s make it worse. Also, the Democrats have said, “Instead, let’s name a prison after Trump.” Thoughts? Thoughts? Thoughts? Name a prison in Miami?
  3765.  
  3766. VELSHI: That is a fantastic idea.
  3767.  
  3768. …
  3769.  
  3770. REID: I think this is a great opportunity for the nerds at the table just to talk about Allen Dulles and also his brother — it was John Foster Dulles, I think, and Allen Dulles, and both of them were involved in destroying Guatemala and Iran.
  3771.  
  3772. VELSHI: Yeah.
  3773.  
  3774. REID: So I feel like that’s important, and that’s given me the opportunity, so, thank you, Republicans.
  3775.  
  3776. CHRISTINA GREER: Well, I mean, we’ve — they’ve already renamed National, Reagan, which I refuse to call it.
  3777.  
  3778. REID: Yeah, I just call it “DCA.“
  3779.  
  3780.  
  3781.  
  3782.  
  3783.  
  3784. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explained our weekly pick: “Glad something about Trump made them laugh, a brief break from the usual full hour of irrational anger at any mention of anything Trump. Naturally, Reid couldn’t hide how her contempt for Republicans goes way beyond just Trump. It’s a disdain so deep she’s still mad about Ronald Reagan getting an airport named for him and the foreign policy of a president who left office more than 60 years ago.”
  3785.  
  3786. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  3787.  
  3788.  
  3789.  
  3790.  
  3791. ■ April 1: Liberal Media Scream: Top editor joins CNN host in ripping MAGA with their ‘truth’
  3792.  
  3793. (Washington Examiner post)
  3794.  
  3795.  
  3796. This week’s Liberal Media Scream is a rare but deserved five-screamer in which the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer joins with a CNN host to condemn former President Donald Trump and his MAGA followers.
  3797.  
  3798. Appearing on CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt, editor Chris Quinn explained why he wrote a weekend letter to readers about the paper’s anti-Trump coverage.
  3799.  
  3800. He said, “These are people that watch Fox News or Newsmax and they believe it because they — it appears credible. Then they come to our platforms and see the opposite and they’re conflicted because they like us. They read us for the sports coverage or the local news, or what have you.”
  3801.  
  3802. Quinn added, “This was for them. I had to, I owed them some sort of an explanation. And the reason it was so difficult is I don’t want to demean them. I don’t want to criticize them. But I can’t stray from the truth. The truth is this guy is a monster. He’s the worst president in history and many people understand that. Those who get their news from not credible sources believe what they’re hearing.”
  3803.  
  3804. Hunt said, “You said — another piece of this to your point of what the truth is, you said, ‘Trust your eyes. Trump, on Jan. 6, launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.’ And just before that you write, ‘This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw but our eyes don’t deceive us.'”
  3805.  
  3806. “And I think that this is the piece of it that gets me because I was there on that day and I looked out the window and I saw these people trying to attack the Capitol. And then, now, half of these political leaders are trying to say no, actually, that thing that you saw with your own eyes did not happen.”
  3807.  
  3808. From today’s CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt:
  3809.  
  3810. KASIE HUNT: How to cover former President Donald Trump is — quite literally — one of the hardest, thorniest questions facing us as journalists. It is something that I think about quite literally every single day when I wake up to join all of you. And it is especially true in the wake of Jan. 6, which affected me both personally and professionally in addition to, of course, having enormous implications for our democracy. This is why this all stood out to me.
  3811.  
  3812. The Cleveland Plain Dealer decided they wanted to address this with their readers head-on over the weekend. The editor, Chris Quinn, writes this: “The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information. The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.”
  3813.  
  3814. And joining me now is Chris Quinn. He is the editor of the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com. Chris, thank you so much for being here. It’s an honor to have you.
  3815.  
  3816. CHRIS QUINN: Good morning.
  3817.  
  3818. HUNT: So I loved how you approached this because you started with your readers — with the people who write to you about this. Many of them, of course, are supporters of Donald Trump. And you write some of them are more thoughtful than others, shall I say.
  3819.  
  3820. But this is something that I have wrestled with because there are so many people in the country who support Donald Trump and many of them have reasons for doing that that have to do with the circumstances that they face. We don’t want to lose empathy for those people. We don’t want to not speak to those people. To be, you know, advocates and helpful in terms of providing those people with information.
  3821.  
  3822. But you sat down and you grappled with this question, and you tried to explain why you’re doing what you’re doing in the way that you’re doing it. Can you explain a little bit more of that to all of us right now?
  3823.  
  3824. QUINN: Yeah. This was a very challenging piece to write. It actually took me almost six months to get my thoughts together. I get two kinds of correspondence from Trump supporters and one is not nice. It’s very condescending and sneering. And I kind of chalk that up to people who had felt left out of society. Donald Trump gave them a club to participate in. And there’s nothing I can say or do to help them understand what we’re doing.
  3825.  
  3826. But the other half write me with great courtesy and implore me for an explanation. They say, “You are dismissing a large segment of the country when you say that Donald Trump is the monster you describe him as and I don’t see him that way. What do you say to me?”
  3827.  
  3828. These are people that watch Fox News or Newsmax and they believe it because they — it appears credible. Then they come to our platforms and see the opposite and they’re conflicted because they like us. They read us for the sports coverage or the local news, or what have you.
  3829.  
  3830. So this was for them. I had to, I owed them some sort of an explanation. And the reason it was so difficult is I don’t want to demean them. I don’t want to criticize them. But I can’t stray from the truth. The truth is this guy is a monster. He’s the worst president in history and many people understand that. Those who get their news from not credible sources believe what they’re hearing.
  3831.  
  3832. HUNT: Yeah. I will just say I think that the decline in our local media is a crisis for many, many reasons, but not least is that you, as a local paper, have a level of trust with people in your communities that is simply not possible to establish when you are a national news organization. And I think that really comes through in this piece that you wrote.
  3833.  
  3834. And you said — another piece of this to your point of what the truth is, you said, “Trust your eyes. Trump, on Jan. 6, launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.” And just before that you write, “This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw but our eyes don’t deceive us.”
  3835.  
  3836. And I think that this is the piece of it that gets me because I was there on that day and I looked out the window and I saw these people trying to attack the Capitol. And then, now, half of these political leaders are trying to say no, actually, that thing that you saw with your own eyes did not happen. Was it that that really was the thing that underscored this the most to you as well?
  3837.  
  3838. QUINN: Yeah. And look, it’s heartbreaking what you’re seeing today. I come from a state where we’ve had senators like George Voinovich and John Glenn — people who would never have stood by during these recent years and allowed what’s happened to happen.
  3839.  
  3840. And today, we have J.D. Vance and we might have Bernie Moreno, whose claim to fame is they want to be puppets for Donald Trump. And it’s not what we should be about.
  3841.  
  3842. And that’s why I referenced that New Yorker piece in what I wrote because the New Yorker had a book review that looked back and said the reason Hitler came to the fore wasn’t because a bunch of people went and voted to have a fascist leader. It was because the people in government, in trying to get power for themselves, appeased him and that allowed him to rise.
  3843.  
  3844. That’s what we have going on. Everybody knows what the truth is. The people in Congress were there. They were under threat from it. But for expedience, they’re denying it happened.
  3845.  
  3846. HUNT: Do you think that those people who are looking to enable Donald Trump, as you say, what is the — their level of culpability here? I mean, obviously, you talk about Trump, himself, and his, the actions that he takes and his role in trying to hang on to power. But these enablers, I mean, what responsibility do they bear?
  3847.  
  3848. QUINN: I think they have full responsibility. I think journalists who veer from the truth are going to end up having full responsibility.
  3849.  
  3850. Look, we’re a regional newsroom and we’re doing well. We’re actually one of the local newsrooms that’s kind of figured it out and we’re thriving and we’re not in any danger of going away. But we have our limited influence.
  3851.  
  3852. And so, we’re doing what we can. We’re, you know, we ask ourselves what’s the right thing to do here? The right thing to do is to call this out, not to say there’s two sides to Donald Trump. There aren’t two sides to Donald Trump. Anybody who has been watching and trying to discern what the truth is here knows that this guy tried to destroy our entire system of government and will do so again. Somebody has to say it.
  3853.  
  3854. I wish people like Dave Joyce, a congressman from Ohio who’s a good guy, would stand up and just denounce it. Because if you started to have a few people of good conscience do that, maybe we could stop this wave, which is frightening beyond belief.
  3855.  
  3856. HUNT: Well, I’m very grateful that you took the time to join us today, Chris, and I do commend reading this column. I will again say this is something I think about literally every single day because we do want to be a resource, a place for people who want to support Donald Trump or who feel dissatisfied with the system in their own lives. I just had to make sure that those ears are continuing to be open to us is a challenge that I grapple with every day. And I really appreciated reading this.
  3857.  
  3858.  
  3859.  
  3860.  
  3861.  
  3862. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “With his smug moral superiority, Quinn encapsulates everything that’s wrong with modern journalism. He’s decided what ‘the truth’ is and his readers better get on board. No wonder fewer and fewer are buying local newspapers. They’ve become just as insulting to their readers as the national media have been for decades. Incredulous that anyone could see Trump as a better president than Biden.”
  3863.  
  3864. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  3865.  
  3866.  
  3867.  
  3868.  
  3869. ■ March 25: Liberal Media Scream: Condescending ‘Really?’ to Rubio’s wish to be Trump VP
  3870.  
  3871. (Washington Examiner post)
  3872.  
  3873.  
  3874. This week’s Liberal Media Scream reveals just how deep the disrespect for former President Donald Trump goes in the press, especially with those who have created a profitable side gig writing and talking about him.
  3875.  
  3876. In just one word, ABC’s Jonathan Karl heaved up a sanctimonious putdown of Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) when the topic of the likely 2024 GOP presidential nominee’s pick for running mate was raised.
  3877.  
  3878. Rubio has said he would be honored to get the nod, as have about a dozen other leading Republicans. What’s more, Rubio would likely help Trump add to his coalition to create a potentially winning ticket.
  3879.  
  3880. But all Karl had to say was, “Really?”
  3881.  
  3882. It didn’t end there. As Rubio explained the problems President Joe Biden dumped on America, Karl couldn’t help but complain, “You’re not suggesting that’s all happening because of Biden?” Rubio affirmed, “Absolutely I am.”
  3883.  
  3884. Here’s the exchange on Sunday’s This Week on ABC:
  3885.  
  3886. JON KARL: There was some reporting this week that you are possibly under consideration to be Donald Trump’s running mate. I don’t put a lot of stock in this reporting right now. We’re early. But you said it would be “an honor” to be offered a spot on his ticket. Really?
  3887.  
  3888. SEN. MARCO RUBIO: Yeah, I think anyone who is offered the opportunity to serve this country as vice president should be honored by the opportunity to do it if you are in public service. I’m in the Senate because I want to serve the country. Being vice president is an important way to serve the country. But I’ve also been clear. I’ve never talked to Donald Trump. I’ve never talked to anybody on his team or family or inner circle about vice president. That’s a decision he’s going to make. He has plenty of really good people to pick from.
  3889.  
  3890. KARL: I mean, the reason why I asked is, I mean, look what happened to the last guy. I mean, a mob stormed the Capitol, literally calling to hang Mike Pence, and Trump defended those chants of “hang Mike Pence.”
  3891.  
  3892. RUBIO: I will tell you this, that when Donald Trump was president of the United States, this country was safer. It was more prosperous. We had relations, for example, in a part of the world that I care about called the Western Hemisphere that were very strong. We had a lot of good things done there. I think the country and the world was a better place when he was president, and I would love to see him return to the White House in comparison to the guy who’s there now, Joe Biden, who’s been a disaster economically.
  3893.  
  3894. Look at the world. Every single day, we wake up to a new crisis, to a new conflict. Everything has gone on fire since the time Joe Biden took over. Afghanistan’s gone down. Ukraine has been invaded. Now the Philippines and the Chinese are on the verge of something bad happening every single day. Not to mention the threats to Taiwan. And we have this blowup in Haiti going on in our very own hemisphere. We wake up every single day, terrorist attacks, 9 million people across the border. That’s what matters to me.
  3895.  
  3896. KARL: But, I mean, you’re not suggesting that’s all happening because of Biden?
  3897.  
  3898. RUBIO: Absolutely I am. Absolutely I’m suggesting it’s happening because of Biden. He’s president and his weakness and his —
  3899.  
  3900. KARL: It’s because of Biden that Russia invaded Ukraine?
  3901.  
  3902. RUBIO: Absolutely.
  3903.  
  3904. KARL: It’s because of Biden that Haiti?
  3905.  
  3906. RUBIO: Absolutely. I mean Putin is sitting there, saying these guys can’t even stand up to the Taliban and they have to fly people hanging off the wings of these airplanes. Now is the time to go.
  3907.  
  3908.  
  3909.  
  3910.  
  3911.  
  3912. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “How arrogant and condescending for a broadcast network TV host to scoff at a U.S. senator for saying he’d be ‘honored’ to serve as the vice presidential candidate of his party. And then, to act astonished over a common Republican talking point about President Biden’s foreign policy failures shows Karl is little more than a liberal political operative in the guise of a journalist who is incredulous that anyone could see Trump as a better president than Biden.”
  3913.  
  3914. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  3915.  
  3916.  
  3917.  
  3918.  
  3919. ■ March 18: Liberal Media Scream: ‘Bloodbath’ is what media are doing to Trump
  3920.  
  3921. (Washington Examiner post)
  3922.  
  3923.  
  3924. This week’s Liberal Media Scream focuses on the media and President Joe Biden’s distortion of former President Donald Trump’s warning of an economic “bloodbath” if he’s not returned to the White House to stop China’s dumping of autos in the U.S. under Biden.
  3925.  
  3926. The media, and now the Biden campaign, pulled the word out of a long Trump explanation at an Ohio political rally of auto sales to make it sound like he was calling for a civil war if he’s not elected.
  3927.  
  3928. It’s very similar to what the media did after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and spelled out how they’d treat a President Trump if given a chance.
  3929.  
  3930. Leading that fake rant over the weekend was ABC and a guest on This Week, New York magazine’s Susan Glasser, formerly with the liberal-left Washington Post and Politico.
  3931.  
  3932. Without any sign of embarrassment for distorting Trump’s words, Glasser ranted on about how threatening Trump is.
  3933.  
  3934. In office, Trump did assail reporters for their “fake news” and overwhelming bias but also was the most accessible and talkative president during his one term. He followed an Obama-Biden administration that was condemned by journalists for avoiding reporters and using technology to go around the media.
  3935.  
  3936. Susan Glasser on Sunday’s This Week on ABC:
  3937.  
  3938. “Donald Trump, it seems to me, it’s very hard eight years into this. We still struggle with how to cover him as journalists, but in a way, the unhinged, rambling rants that you see from the former president of the United States are baked in, and I think, in a way, we are all desensitized and inured to the extraordinary, remarkable and very at times un-American and threatening things that the former president is saying.
  3939.  
  3940. “I’m not saying it’s easy to understand how to cover it, but I think we have to cover it when the former president, who’s already incited violence among his followers, says that there’s going to be a bloodbath after the election if he does not win. He is telling us what he is going to do. …
  3941.  
  3942. I’m sorry. I just have to say something. Like Donald Trump is attacking, in a broad-brush sense, the basic pillars of American democracy. Period. Full stop. If that’s not news to you. It’s not about tariffs. That’s not the reason why millions of Americans are supporting Donald Trump. Let’s be real about that.”
  3943.  
  3944.  
  3945.  
  3946.  
  3947.  
  3948. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Yes, after eight years of constant hyperventilating by journalists, over supposed outrageous comments from Donald Trump, many have become ‘inured,’ but it’s not journalists. It’s the public to the media’s never-ending scare-mongering about Trump bringing an end to ‘the basic pillars of American democracy.’ Glasser’s answer: Double down and get more journalists to be even more aggressive in denouncing Trump. Good luck with that, convincing anyone who has already tuned out such vitriol.”
  3949.  
  3950. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  3951.  
  3952.  
  3953.  
  3954.  
  3955. ■ March 11: Liberal Media Scream: Hollywood freaks over Trump
  3956.  
  3957. (Washington Examiner post)
  3958.  
  3959.  
  3960. Hollywood’s awards season has finally ended and in perfectly normal election-year fashion: Tinseltown freaking out over former President Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House.
  3961.  
  3962. Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel got a retort from Trump after he blasted the former president and his Republican allies. Kimmel responded, “Well, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching. I’m surprised you’re still — isn’t it past your jail time?”
  3963.  
  3964. But his shruggable performance was far outdone by the angry venting of actor Robert De Niro, who stepped up his attacks on Trump.
  3965.  
  3966. On Friday, De Niro pleased Bill Maher’s audience by blasting Trump. “Vote for Trump and you’ll get the nightmare. Vote for Biden and it will be back to normalcy,” he began.
  3967.  
  3968. To laughter and applause from Maher’s Los Angeles studio audience, De Niro marveled at how anyone could support Trump. He called the poll-leading former president “a total monster” who will install a “dictatorship.” More insults followed: “sociopathic, psychopathic, malignant narcissist,” as well as an “idiot” and “clown.”
  3969.  
  3970. From Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO:
  3971.  
  3972. ROBERT DE NIRO: The bottom line is: It’s Biden vs. Trump. We want to live in a world that we want to live in and enjoy living in or live in a nightmare? Vote for Trump and you’ll get the nightmare. Vote for Biden and it will be back to normalcy. …
  3973.  
  3974. The guy is a total monster, and anybody, I don’t understand it. I guess they get behind the kind of logic: They want to f*** with people, screw them because they’re unhappy about something. He’s such a mean, nasty, hateful person. I’d never play him as an actor because I can’t see any good in him — nothing, nothing at all, nothing redeemable in him. Whoever the people are who want to vote for him, and they look like intelligent people around there, for some reason, it can’t be, it cannot be. If he wins the election, you won’t be on the show anymore. He’ll come looking for me. They’ll be things that happened that none of us can imagine. That’s what happens in that kind of a dictatorship — which is what he says. Let’s believe him. Take him at his word.
  3975.  
  3976. He’s a sociopathic, psychopathic, malignant narcissist. He is a dangerous person … the people who somehow think he’s going to be the answer to their prayers, whatever those are.
  3977.  
  3978. BILL MAHER: Did you know him as fellow New Yorkers?
  3979.  
  3980. DE NIRO: Never wanted to know him.
  3981.  
  3982. MAHER: Never wanted to, you must have crossed —
  3983.  
  3984. DE NIRO: He was an idiot. He was a clown. He was a clown in New York.
  3985.  
  3986.  
  3987.  
  3988.  
  3989.  
  3990. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Rants like this from pretentious Hollywood celebrities probably drive more to vote for Trump than dissuade anyone from supporting him. How many care about the all-too-predictable left-wing political views of lefties in Hollywood who always denounce the Republican candidate and advocate for the Democratic one? Not anyone who is drawn to Trump.”
  3991.  
  3992. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  3993.  
  3994.  
  3995.  
  3996.  
  3997. ■ March 4: Liberal Media Scream: Media role is reeducating you on greatness of Bidenomics
  3998.  
  3999. (Washington Examiner post)
  4000.  
  4001.  
  4002. President Joe Biden has apparently realized that pitching “Bidenomics” is a loser politically, but his White House forgot to tell its media echo chamber.
  4003.  
  4004. According to an Issues &amp; Insights report, Biden has “ditched” the term, with the report noting Biden and his White House used the term 59 times last July. By last month, it got a mention just 10 times.
  4005.  
  4006. That makes sense since most polls show that the public viewed the term negatively because they feel that the economy is poor and that prices are unjustifiably high.
  4007.  
  4008. But the well-paid Washington media thinks the public is stupid and needs to be reeducated on just how great Bidenomics is for them.
  4009.  
  4010. For example, this week’s Liberal Media Scream features longtime editor and columnist Margaret Sullivan telling fellow anti-Trumper Christiane Amanpour that it’s up to them to make sure people understand the consequences of their wrong-headedness.
  4011.  
  4012. “You know,” Sullivan said on Amanpour’s show, “people think that the economy is not doing well. You know, do our public service mission, which is to make sure, as sure as we can, that we have an informed electorate. Whose fault is that? Well, it’s partly the fault of the media. And I think that that ought to be rectified.”
  4013.  
  4014. From Saturday’s The Amanpour Hour on CNN
  4015.  
  4016. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: The horse race and an age-old dilemma. Why the obsession over Biden’s age misses the point.
  4017.  
  4018. MARGARET SULLIVAN, GUARDIAN: I wonder whether people are as aware of Trump’s authoritarian plans as they are of Biden’s age.
  4019.  
  4020. AMANPOUR: My next guest says enough is enough with the media’s hyperbolic herd mentality coverage of Biden’s age and competency. Critic, columnist, and academic Margaret Sullivan urges us to get real about the issues because this election is about much more than, quote, “chasing clicks.”
  4021.  
  4022. SULLIVAN: I think that the leaders of major American news organizations should have front and center in their minds, and be communicating to their staffs, that this is an extremely consequential election and we should be doing our public service role that it’s not so much about chasing the latest clicks and the latest horse race coverage but rather to make sure that we’re getting the stakes of the race across to people.
  4023.  
  4024. You know, people think that the economy is not doing well. You know, do our public service mission, which is to make sure, as sure as we can, that we have an informed electorate. Whose fault is that? Well, it’s partly the fault of the media. And I think that that ought to be rectified.
  4025.  
  4026.  
  4027.  
  4028.  
  4029.  
  4030. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “What Margaret Sullivan advocates is exactly why the media have lost all credibility and trust for most Americans. She’s decided Trump is too dangerous to be president, so journalists should throw away all standards of journalism by openly joining Team Biden to convince voters of Biden’s virtues while downplaying his negatives. And then journalists wonder why they are seen in such low esteem when they are little more than Democratic Party operatives.”
  4031.  
  4032. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4033.  
  4034.  
  4035.  
  4036.  
  4037. ■ February 26: Liberal Media Scream: Trump Derangement Syndrome flies off the charts
  4038.  
  4039. (Washington Examiner post)
  4040.  
  4041.  
  4042. The media have been on a rantfest lately, warning that former President Donald Trump will end democracy and execute his enemies.
  4043.  
  4044. Just consider what Bob Costas said over the weekend. “You have to be in the throes of some sort of toxic delusion in a toxic cult to believe that Donald Trump has ever been, in any sense, emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, or ethically fit to be president of the United States,” he said.
  4045.  
  4046. But that’s nothing compared to our Liberal Media Scream focus on Tom Schaller, the author of White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, who went further to attack the half of the nation that has supported Trump over the years.
  4047.  
  4048. White rural voters, he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, “are the most racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-gay geodemographic group in the country. … They’re the most conspiracist group: QAnon support and subscribers, election denialism, COVID denialism and scientific skepticism, Obama birthism.” And that’s just the start of his five scream rant.
  4049.  
  4050. From Monday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC:
  4051.  
  4052. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: As we barrel toward a likely rematch of the 2020 election, one candidate continues to have a hold over white rural voters. But it’s not Joe Biden, seen here as a boy on the right side of your screen, who went to public school, is the son of a used car salesman, and was born to a middle-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Instead, it is Trump, here on the left side, a private school-educated son of a New York City real estate tycoon who became a millionaire at 8 years old and didn’t have to serve because he claimed he had bone spurs in his little feet. So, why is it that Trump appeals so much to a group he couldn’t be more different from?
  4053.  
  4054. Joining us now, professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Tom Schaller, and journalist and opinion writer Paul Waldman. Their new book out tomorrow is entitled, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. Tom, I’ll start with you. Why are white rural voters a threat to democracy at this point? You would think, as we pointed out, looking at Joe Biden’s background and Donald Trump’s, that the opposite would be true.
  4055.  
  4056. TOM SCHALLER: “We lay out the fourfold interconnected threat that white rural voters pose to the country. First of all, we show 30 polls and national studies that demonstrate this. So we provide the receipts in Chapter 6. They are the most racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-gay geodemographic group in the country.
  4057.  
  4058. “Second, they’re the most conspiracist group: QAnon support and subscribers, election denialism, COVID denialism and scientific skepticism, Obama birthism. Third, anti-democratic sentiments. They don’t believe in an independent press — free speech. They’re most likely to say the president should be able to act unilaterally without checks from Congress or the courts or the bureaucracy. They’re also the most strongly white nationalist and white Christian nationalists. And fourth, they’re most likely to excuse or justify violence as acceptable alternative to peaceful public discourse…
  4059.  
  4060. “I think this is the disconnect, right? They’d rather channel their rage. I think what a lot of white rural Americans have decided is that their economic fortunes are decided by globalization and frankly, late-stage capitalism, which is eating up all the mom and pop stores and taking away the extractive industries, in coal and farming and so forth, so they might as well vote on their culture issues, they might as well vote on God, guns, and religion because they feel like neither party is going to deliver any material benefit.
  4061.  
  4062. “They’re not going to reverse the closure of rural pharmacies and rural hospitals and rural healthcare facilities, which are disappearing not because of communism and not because of socialism but because of capitalism, right? Rural pharmacies and hospitals are closing because they’re not moneymakers, and unless they’re part of a regional chain, they’re disappearing. So Trump comes in and says, let’s just hate on cities, let’s just hate on minorities, let’s hate on immigrants, and at least they can deliver on that. And so they’re not even voting in their material interest anymore, and that’s causing a further decay and decline of rural communities.”
  4063.  
  4064.  
  4065.  
  4066.  
  4067.  
  4068. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explained our weekly pick: “So, if a class of voters prefers a candidate you don’t like, it couldn’t be that they just have a differing opinion with which you can respectfully disagree. No, you must impugn and demean them to discredit their irrational preference for the candidate you condescendingly have decided is not in their best interest. And since this makes MSNBC viewers feel superior, you get a welcoming platform on the left-wing cable channel’s morning show.”
  4069.  
  4070. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4071.  
  4072.  
  4073.  
  4074.  
  4075. ■ February 19: Liberal Media Scream: Colbert says Trump ‘going to prison’ better than sex
  4076.  
  4077. (Washington Examiner post)
  4078.  
  4079.  
  4080. Remember when late-night comedy shows were funny instead of being populated by left-wing lecturers?
  4081.  
  4082. Case in point in our weekly Liberal Media Scream is Late Show host Stephen Colbert. Along with many people last week, he watched the televised testimony of Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis and her explanation of her affair with an attorney she put in charge of the election case against former President Donald Trump.
  4083.  
  4084. “How good was this sex? Good enough to risk democracy over?” he asked in his monologue.
  4085.  
  4086. Colbert then added, “You know what feels really good? Donald Trump going to prison. That — that, my friends — is what they call a real happy ending.”
  4087.  
  4088. From Thursday’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS:    
  4089.  
  4090. STEPHEN COLBERT: Now, I don’t know who’s telling the truth here yet, but I will say exchanging business cards isn’t exactly a meet cute. The movie’s not called When Harry Networked with Sally. Now, at one point, Willis had had enough and really laid into opposing counsel.
  4091.  
  4092. FANI WILLIS: You’re confused; you think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.
  4093.  
  4094. COLBERT: Damn straight. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. Here’s the thing. Yes, it’s true Donald Trump and his associates are on trial in this, one of the most important cases in the history of our republic. So, and, I’ve just got one follow-up question here: Given that if you are removed from the prosecution, it could delay this trial until after the election: How good was the sex? Good enough to risk democracy over? Because I’ve never had sex that good. You know what feels really good? Donald Trump going to prison. That — that, my friends — is what they call the real happy ending.
  4095.  
  4096.  
  4097.  
  4098.  
  4099.  
  4100. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Liberals love to complain that Donald Trump has broken many norms, but prominent entertainment media figures like Colbert have destroyed late-night TV. It was a comedy refuge from hard-edged politics, but Colbert is using his show to advance left-wing talking points and push his hate of Trump and conservatives in the guise of comedy. It’s not funny, and a legend like Johnny Carson, whose political jokes were light-hearted and chided both sides, is rolling over in his grave.”
  4101.  
  4102. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4103.  
  4104.  
  4105.  
  4106.  
  4107. ■ February 12: Liberal Media Scream: MSNBC host laughably says press against Biden
  4108.  
  4109. (Washington Examiner post)
  4110.  
  4111. This week’s Liberal Media Scream has LOL written all over it.
  4112.  
  4113. Imagine any cable news show host claiming that the media has a negative bias against President Joe Biden. LOL, right?
  4114.  
  4115. That’s what happened on Sunday’s Meet the Press when MSNBC host Jen Psaki said the media showed its bias when it simply repeated what the nearly 400-page report from special counsel Robert Hur said about the president’s foggy mind.
  4116.  
  4117. Psaki, who was Biden’s first White House press secretary, complained that the media should be attacking former President Donald Trump, not her former boss.
  4118.  
  4119. “If you’re sitting in the White House and on the campaign right now, you’re absolutely banging your head against the wall at the way that the Thursday report has been covered, given all of the things” Trump has said and done, she said.
  4120.  
  4121. From the roundtable on Sunday’s Meet the Press:
  4122.  
  4123. JEN PSAKI: If you’re sitting in the White House and on the campaign right now, you’re absolutely banging your head against the wall at the way that the Thursday report has been covered, given all of the things that have happened this week, including, and I know you asked Chris Christie about this, the fact that Donald Trump yesterday suggested that Vladimir Putin should have free rein in attacking NATO allies, and what do we see is wall-to-wall coverage of whether a guy who is four years older than his opponent is too old to be president.
  4124.  
  4125. KRISTEN WELKER: And we are going to get to NATO. Go ahead.
  4126.  
  4127. BRENDAN BUCK, former spokesman to ex-speaker Paul Ryan: Part of that job, to bring that to the front is, it’s the president’s job to bring that out and attack his opponent. I mean, the president is not taking the opportunity on Super Bowl Sunday. He’s not taking, really, any opportunities. And we hear, time and again —
  4128.  
  4129. PSAKI: First of all, that’s not true. It’s not being covered. He has traveled just as much as Donald Trump, as Barack Obama. It is hard to break through the cloud of Donald Trump in this media environment. That is true.
  4130.  
  4131.  
  4132.  
  4133.  
  4134.  
  4135. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “A media hostile to a liberal cause or Democratic politician is such a novelty that liberal political operatives like Jen Psaki just can’t comprehend it. After three-plus years of sycophantic coverage of Joe Biden, he gets a few days of negative coverage, and she lashes out at the media for daring to briefly act as real journalists. Welcome to the world endured every day for decades by conservatives and Republicans.”  
  4136.  
  4137. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4138.  
  4139.  
  4140.  
  4141. ■ February 5: Liberal Media Scream: Kristen Welker likes to lecture Republicans, too
  4142.  
  4143. (Washington Examiner post)
  4144.  
  4145.  
  4146. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a look at new Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker’s treatment of Republican leaders. And surprise — not — she continues to be just as biased as former host Chuck Todd.
  4147.  
  4148. First, she lectured House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the border bill released by the Senate on Sunday. “You are now the speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isn’t something better than nothing?” she said.
  4149.  
  4150. Then, she passed along the Democratic talking point that after three years of aggressively enacting open border policies, “Joe Biden said he would shut down the border.”
  4151.  
  4152. From Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  4153.  
  4154. KRISTEN WELKER: You have been calling for legislative change to actually deal with this problem. You are now the speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isn’t something better than nothing?
  4155.  
  4156. SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Kristen, we did that. We did that nine months ago. And since we passed our measure in the House to solve this problem, and the reason we had to do it is because we saw that President Biden was not fulfilling his obligation under the law. That’s why it is such a failure of leadership, but we did our part. And by the way, since then, in the nine months since that bill sat on [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer’s desk, collecting dust, 1.8 million illegals have been allowed into this country, welcomed into the country, sent around the nation into every community — communities near everyone listening and watching this morning. And that is a catastrophe, and the American people know it, and that’s part of the reason that Joe Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president facing reelection.
  4157.  
  4158. WELKER: Even former President Trump, though, called for legislative change on this issue. You have one of the slimmest majorities in the House in history. Don’t you have to compromise to get something done? What you passed in the House can’t pass in the Senate, Mr. Speaker. You know that.
  4159.  
  4160. JOHNSON: We are willing to work. We are willing to work with the Senate. I am not disclosing that, and I’ve been very consistent for the hundred days that I’ve had the gavel. We are willing to work, but they have to be serious about it. If you only do a few of those components, you are not going to solve the problem, and Kristen, that is not a Republican talking point. That’s what the sheriffs at the border, the Border Patrol agents, the deputy chief of U.S. Border Patrol, a 33-year veteran of the agency, told us. He said that it’s as though we’re administering an open fire hydrant. He said, “I don’t need more buckets,” like the president has proposed. I need to stop the flow, and we know how to do that, but Joe Biden is unwilling to do it.
  4161.  
  4162. WELKER: Let me ask you about your decision, and by the way, Joe Biden said he would shut down the border. He’s calling for more funding. He’s calling for you to pass this legislation.
  4163.  
  4164.  
  4165.  
  4166.  
  4167.  
  4168. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “A perfect example of a so-called journalist serving as an advocate for Washington’s media-political establishment, demanding a recalcitrant conservative get in line and adopt the approved narrative.”
  4169.  
  4170. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4171.  
  4172.  
  4173.  
  4174.  
  4175. ■ January 29, 2024: No Liberal Media Scream this week.
  4176.  
  4177.  
  4178.  
  4179. ■ January 22, 2024: Liberal Media Scream: Washington Post’s Rubin wants Trump ‘fascists’ reeducated
  4180.  
  4181. (Washington Examiner post)
  4182.  
  4183.  
  4184. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features popular Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin doubling down on her Never Trump campaign.
  4185.  
  4186. Appearing on the MSNBC weekend show Velshi exactly a year from Inauguration Day, the onetime conservative opinion writer said that the masses appearing at former President Donald Trump’s rallies “are part of a fascist cult.”
  4187.  
  4188. And, she added, “they’re impervious to any kind of data, any kind of information. But what you have to do, if you care about democracy, is mobilize the people who already know that he’s a danger and reaffirm and reeducate the people who are perhaps kind of flirting in the middle — they’re soft Republicans, they’re never Republicans — about the danger of going back to Trump.”
  4189.  
  4190. Rubin on MSNBC’s Velshi on Saturday:
  4191.  
  4192. “Why it’s perhaps important to go to one of these rallies is to understand why he does have supporters. These people are part of a fascist cult. And let’s be honest, there are a lot of them. But a lot of them doesn’t mean that they are behaving logically or rationally. To the contrary, we’ve seen in other fascist regimes that millions of people, sometimes even a majority of the country, becomes intoxicated with an authoritarian figure, and these people are utterly irrational. If you speak to some of them, they will spit back these bizarro conspiracy theories. They actually believe in all of the mumbo-jumbo that he tells them.
  4193.  
  4194. “So I think it would be a wake-up call about what these people are about, and, no, we’re not going to convince people who are part of the cult to switch. As you say, they’re impervious to any kind of data, any kind of information. But what you have to do, if you care about democracy, is mobilize the people who already know that he’s a danger and reaffirm and reeducate the people who are perhaps kind of flirting in the middle — they’re soft Republicans, they’re never Republicans — about the danger of going back to Trump. And I think that’s the job between now and November, and that’s the challenge for the Biden administration.”
  4195.  
  4196.  
  4197.  
  4198.  
  4199.  
  4200. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “How condescending of Rubin to be so comfortable denigrating supporters of a presidential candidate she despises with one of the most vile insults. Just because she hates Trump doesn’t make those going to his rallies, the very embodiment of democracy in action, ‘fascists.’ Whatever happened to liberals wanting to expand participation in the democratic process?”
  4201.  
  4202. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4203.  
  4204.  
  4205.  
  4206.  
  4207. ■ January 15, 2024: Liberal Media Scream: MSNBC’s Mika all in to help Biden’s reelection
  4208.  
  4209. (Washington Examiner post)
  4210.  
  4211.  
  4212. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, fawning over first lady Jill Biden in a sign of where the cable network stands before the 2024 presidential primary season begins.
  4213.  
  4214. With easy questions quizzing Biden about her favorite emoji to dismissing chants of “Let’s go Brandon” that still follow the president, Brzezinski put on an able defense of the Biden White House.
  4215.  
  4216. Among the questions posed to the first lady was this: “The division in this country, the cruelty of MAGA Republicans against your family. Does any part of you once in a while think, ugh, maybe we bow out?”
  4217.  
  4218. The questions were part of Brzezinski’s Know Your Value “movement.” Our partners at the Media Research Center highlighted these from last Thursday’s show and today’s event at the White House:
  4219.  
  4220. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: You’ve been married to President Joe Biden for 46 years. There have been Senate races, three presidential campaigns, eight years of your husband serving as vice president. Unthinkable personal loss and challenge, and now democracy is on the ballot. What do you think when you hear people say, “Well, I just can’t vote for Joe Biden this election?” What is it that they may not know about him at this point, especially when the alternative seems to want to change this nation so radically?
  4221.  
  4222. BRZEZINSKI: Potentially another four years in the White House. With everything you do here, does yet another one give you any pause thinking of, like, the personal health and well-being for both of you? The division in this country, the cruelty of MAGA Republicans against your family. Does any part of you once in a while think, ugh, maybe we bow out?
  4223.  
  4224. BRZEZINSKI: How have you been coping personally with the onslaught of accusations against your husband and your family, including and especially Hunter, the focus of a House Oversight Committee hearing holding, holding him in contempt, obsessing over him, showing pictures of him during vulnerable moments in his battle with addiction on the floor of the House. This would crush any family.
  4225.  
  4226. BRZEZINSKI: What do you think when you hear Trump Republicans calling it “Biden crime family” or one congresswoman, “The Biden crime family sold out America,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, “He’s a liar, he’s mentally incompetent,” and let’s not even talk about what “Let’s go Brandon” means. But you have U.S. senators holding signs that say that.
  4227.  
  4228. ….BRZEZINSKI: Your favorite emoji?
  4229.  
  4230. JILL BIDEN: Oh, my gosh. The turquoise heart.
  4231.  
  4232. BRZEZINSKI: Turquoise heart?
  4233.  
  4234. BIDEN: Yeah.
  4235.  
  4236. BRZEZINSKI: I don’t have the turquoise heart on my phone. What does that mean?
  4237.  
  4238. BIDEN: It’s like the beach. It’s calm.
  4239.  
  4240. BRZEZINSKI: Oh, I like that.
  4241.  
  4242. BIDEN: Color of the sea.
  4243.  
  4244. BRZEZINSKI: Do I type out turquoise heart? Comfort food?
  4245.  
  4246. BIDEN: Oh, french fries.
  4247.  
  4248. BRZEZINSKI: Umm. Yeah, yeah.
  4249.  
  4250.  
  4251.  
  4252.  
  4253.  
  4254. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Mika Brzezinski is all in on the reelection of Joe Biden. First lady Jill Biden picked well in selecting Brzezinski to interview her, confident she wouldn’t be challenged as they both could commiserate with how awful Trump is and how mean Republicans are to her family, topped by letting her tout the turquoise heart emoji. How informative.”
  4255.  
  4256. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4257.  
  4258.  
  4259.  
  4260.  
  4261. ■ January 8, 2024: Liberal Media Scream: Stephanopoulos judges Trump an insurrectionist, unqualified for 2024
  4262.  
  4263. (Washington Examiner post)
  4264.  
  4265.  
  4266. This week’s Liberal Media Scream is a five-screamer featuring an ABC host and former Clinton handler acting as judge, jury, and executioner of former President Donald Trump and his effort to remain on the 2024 primary ballots and let voters, not partisan state officials, decide his fate.
  4267.  
  4268. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on his Sunday show This Week, was quizzing his panel about the campaigns in some states to declare Trump ineligible for election because an official decided that the former president triggered a 14th Amendment ban on insurrectionists.
  4269.  
  4270. On his show, which occurred the day after the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, one of his panelists suggested the Supreme Court will decide Trump is guilty but that it will be up to Congress and not the states to erase the GOP front-runner’s name from the ballots.
  4271.  
  4272. “If you say he engaged in insurrection,” Stephanopoulos said, “I don’t see how you can escape the plain meaning of the 14th Amendment and say he’s qualified to run for office.”
  4273.  
  4274. Panelist Donna Brazile, an influential liberal and former acting Democratic Party chairwoman, told her host, “I totally agree with you, George.”
  4275.  
  4276. From the roundtable on Sunday’s This Week on ABC:
  4277.  
  4278. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Sarah, what’s your guess on what the court does here?
  4279.  
  4280. SARAH ISGUR, SENIOR EDITOR OF THE DISPATCH: I think you’ll have the Supreme Court hold that he is not disqualified from being on the ballot. They’ll overturn the Colorado Supreme Court.
  4281.  
  4282. STEPHANOPOULOS: The question is, how will they do it though?
  4283.  
  4284. ISGUR: Correct. I think they’ll say that, in fact, the 14th Amendment makes clear it’s up to Congress. If Congress can requalify someone by a two-thirds vote, there’s no timeline on that. Which means that, you know, as one of the amicus briefs has pointed out, it’s really supposed to be post-elections about holding office, not running for office. And so I think they’ll say it’s really Congress’s job. The states can’t make up their own standard. Is it beyond a reasonable doubt? Is it more likely than not? Et cetera. What’s interesting to me will be whether or not the Supreme Court goes out of their way in order to get those three, Kagan, Sotomayor, Jackson votes, in saying, “Yes, it was an insurrection, and yes, he engaged in it, but it’s up to Congress.”
  4285.  
  4286. STEPHANOPOULOS: I don’t see how they can do that, Donna Brazile. If you say he engaged in insurrection, was the question I asked Nancy Pelosi, I don’t see how you can escape the plain meaning of the 14th Amendment and say he’s qualified to run for office.
  4287.  
  4288. DONNA BRAZILE: I totally agree with you, George.
  4289.  
  4290.  
  4291.  
  4292.  
  4293.  
  4294. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Another example of how Stephanopoulos remains a Democratic partisan first, a journalist a distant second. No true journalist would weigh in with a definitive conclusion on what the Supreme Court should do weeks before a ruling on such a contentious issue which divides Americans. Stephanopoulos has clearly put himself in the camp with those who want to deny the public’s ability to vote for whomever they prefer. So much for saving democracy from Trump when you want to subvert the process.”
  4295.  
  4296. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4297.  
  4298.  
  4299.  
  4300.  
  4301. ■ December 25, 2023 and January 1, 2024: No Liberal Media Screams these weeks.
  4302.  
  4303.  
  4304.  
  4305. ■ December 18, 2023: Liberal Media Scream: Scaremonger Scarborough: Trump will ‘execute’ foes, crush ‘American experiment’
  4306.  
  4307. (Washington Examiner post)
  4308.  
  4309.  
  4310. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough’s latest anti-Trump ranting.
  4311.  
  4312. The host, whose earlier claim that former President Donald Trump will “execute” foes should he be reelected won the Media Research Center’s “Worst Quote of the Year,” said on Monday that Trump would destroy America’s democracy, too.
  4313.  
  4314. “A year from now, it could be over, the American experiment at an end one year from now,” Scarborough said in comments we graded a rare five out of five “liberal media screams.”
  4315.  
  4316. His comments are clearly what the latest Rasmussen Reports survey was tapping into when it found that more voters than ever believe the left bias in the media has reached a new high. The comments also raise a question about what scaremongering liberal media figures will be saying in 11 months if Trump is on the verge of beating President Joe Biden.
  4317.  
  4318. Scarborough on Monday’s Morning Joe in a discussion with Politico’s Jonathan Lemire:
  4319.  
  4320. “One year from now, it could be over. American democracy could be over. Donald Trump, one year from now, could win. He’s told us what he is going to do. When I say American democracy is going to be over, I haven’t said this. Donald Trump is the guy who said it. He is the one talking about executing generals that are not loyal enough to him, a guy that’s talking about terminating the Constitution if it gets in the way of his power. He’s the guy that’s talking about taking off news networks he disagrees with. He’s the one talking about prosecuting and putting in jail people who disagree with him. He’s the one saying that.
  4321.  
  4322. “So, a year from now, it could be over, the American experiment at an end one year from now. So, let me ask you, with that being the case and with Joe Biden’s poll numbers getting worse, why is the White House going around singing, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’? Because that’s basically what they’re saying. Why does Joe Biden still have all of his campaign people inside the White House? When are they going to go out and start working on the campaign — not of his lifetime, of our lifetime? When are they going to start acting like American democracy is on the line and stop telling everybody to not worry?”
  4323.  
  4324.  
  4325.  
  4326.  
  4327.  
  4328. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explained our weekly pick: “Saying day after day after day the same over the top ‘the sky is falling’ warning to try to scare his viewers about Trump ending democracy is doing nothing but making Scarborough look every bit as unhinged as he wants people to see Trump. It may be catnip for MSNBC viewers, but Scarborough has become a parody of someone stuck inside a Trump Derangement Syndrome whirlwind unable to make cogent criticisms.”
  4329.  
  4330. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4331.  
  4332.  
  4333.  
  4334.  
  4335. ■ December 11: Liberal Media Scream: PBS runs interference for Biden over Hunter scandals
  4336.  
  4337. (Washington Examiner post)
  4338.  
  4339.  
  4340. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the efforts of Public TV and a Washington Post columnist to deflect the latest criminal indictment of first son Hunter Biden away from President Joe Biden.
  4341.  
  4342. Following the tax charges filed by the Justice Department against Hunter Biden, the PBS NewsHour was eager to tell viewers on Friday that it saw no connection to the president.
  4343.  
  4344. Anchor Geoff Bennett started with the “context” that Hunter Biden “does not work in the White House for his father in the way that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump did. And the indictment does not in any way implicate President Joe Biden.”
  4345.  
  4346. PBS guest Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post also ran block for Biden. “For Republicans to try to make a connection between Hunter Biden and trying to say that, 'Well, if you’re going to go after Trump, well, why shouldn’t we go after Biden?' these are two completely different cases,” he lectured.
  4347.  
  4348. From Friday’s PBS NewsHour:
  4349.  
  4350. GEOFF BENNETT: So, let’s start with the latest legal trouble facing Hunter Biden, with the important context that Hunter Biden’s a private citizen. He is not seeking, nor has he ever held, public office. He does not work in the White House for his father in the way that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump did. And the indictment does not in any way implicate President Joe Biden.
  4351.  
  4352. And yet this will certainly add to the problems, the political problems, facing this White House, as House Republicans, Jonathan, zero in on Hunter Biden’s business dealings as part of their own investigations.
  4353.  
  4354. JONATHAN CAPEHART: As part of their own investigations that have been going on for years now, and they’ve been using the president’s son, the president’s troubled son, to try to sully the president. And so far, they’ve come up with nothing, even though, next week, apparently, they’re going to be voting on, you know, to authorize an impeachment inquiry, trying to make connections that aren’t there.
  4355.  
  4356. Look, when you read the indictment, when you hear about the indictment, it’s bad. I mean, it’s not good. It’s not good at all. But we’re talking about someone, as you — I’m glad you put that proper context there. He’s an adult. He has not held office. He’s not sought office. He’s not working for his father.
  4357.  
  4358. The only thing is, is that he — his father is president of the United States. He’s being held accountable. And I take — I agree with [Hunter Biden’s lawyer] Abbe Lowell that, if his last name weren’t Biden, he probably wouldn’t even have these charges. They would have worked it out.
  4359.  
  4360. But he’s facing the consequences, and he’s going through the legal avenues that are afforded to him. And for Republicans to try to make a connection between Hunter Biden and trying to say that, 'Well, if you’re going to go after Trump, well, why shouldn’t we go after Biden?' these are two completely different cases.
  4361.  
  4362.  
  4363.  
  4364.  
  4365.  
  4366. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “You can almost feel through the screen how uncomfortable the PBS team was to even cover this story, but they realized they had to at least mention it, so they poured on the caveats so their audience wouldn’t be burdened with any information that might hurt their perception of President Biden. It’s the exact opposite tack they take with Donald Trump, where any allegations around him are amplified and discussed ad nauseam.”
  4367.  
  4368. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4369.  
  4370.  
  4371.  
  4372.  
  4373. ■ December 4: Liberal Media Scream: Media eagerly team with Liz Cheney to undermine Trump
  4374.  
  4375. (Washington Examiner post)
  4376.  
  4377.  
  4378. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the remarkable teaming of the media with conservative Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney to stop former President Donald Trump’s 2024 bid.
  4379.  
  4380. Repeating her success in winning Democrats to her cause after the Jan. 6 riots and in her No. 2 role on the House Jan. 6 panel, the media have eagerly opened its best shows for her to talk about her new book and campaign against Trump.
  4381.  
  4382. The media have helped to promote her book and provided top platforms, notably on CBS Sunday Morning, where she warned that “one of the things we see today is sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the United States.”
  4383.  
  4384. In interviewing her about Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, John Dickerson offered the perfect set-up question: “If a person is a member of Congress and they have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, can they defend the Constitution and also endorse Donald Trump?”
  4385.  
  4386. Cheney replied: “You can’t be for Donald Trump and for the Constitution. You have to choose.”
  4387.  
  4388. The media's focus on the book has helped it into the No. 1 spot on Amazon on Monday, a day before it is released.
  4389.  
  4390. From Sunday’s CBS News Sunday Morning:
  4391.  
  4392. JOHN DICKERSON: After losing her 2022 Republican primary, Cheney traded the U.S. Capitol dome for the Thomas Jefferson-designed rotunda at the University of Virginia, where she has been lecturing on politics and writing a new book, Oath and Honor.
  4393.  
  4394. Let me ask you about that oath. If a person is a member of Congress and they have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, can they defend the Constitution and also endorse Donald Trump?
  4395.  
  4396. LIZ CHENEY: No. It’s inconsistent.
  4397.  
  4398. DICKERSON: So, they’re breaking with their oath by saying they would like him to be the next president?
  4399.  
  4400. CHENEY: In my view, you know, fundamentally, there is a choice to be made. You can’t both be for Donald Trump and for the Constitution. You have to choose.
  4401.  
  4402. DICKERSON: It’s a lot of people who are choosing Donald Trump.
  4403.  
  4404. CHENEY: Yeah, it is.
  4405.  
  4406.  
  4407.  
  4408.  
  4409.  
  4410. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Usually, to earn such a laudatory CBS News segment for your book, it must be published by CBS-owned Simon &amp; Schuster. But Dickerson and CBS are so enthralled with her quest to destroy Trump and anyone Trump-adjacent that despite having Little, Brown and Company as her publisher, they went into full promotion mode, cuing up her talking points with no pushback.”
  4411.  
  4412. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4413.  
  4414.  
  4415.  
  4416.  
  4417. ■ November 27: Liberal Media Scream: Post reporter says ‘sources’ fret public’s lack of credit for Biden ‘successes’
  4418.  
  4419. (Washington Examiner post)
  4420.  
  4421.  
  4422. For this week’s Liberal Media Scream, we have the latest example of a journalist inside the Beltway concerned that President Joe Biden just isn’t getting the credit he deserves for "Bidenomics," the Middle East crisis, or pretty much anything else.
  4423.  
  4424. Despite two years of polling that shows the public doesn’t buy the White House spin that their life is better under the Democratic administration, the Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell on Sunday’s Meet the Press cited “my sources” complaining that Biden is getting treated like the no-respect funnyman Rodney Dangerfield.
  4425.  
  4426. “My sources are saying President Biden doesn’t get a lot of credit, not only on this, but on a whole host of things,” she said in addressing the hostage releases over the weekend.
  4427.  
  4428. But maybe there's hope, she added, that Biden will get the credit she says he deserves if his team just sells it better. "They have a lot of work to do to once again, like I said, try to get credit for the successes that he’s had over the past two years which he keeps on getting blamed for everything bad that’s happened."
  4429.  
  4430. From Sunday’s Meet the Press:
  4431.  
  4432. KRISTEN WELKER: Leigh Ann, I want to start with you. This is a huge test for President Biden. And obviously now, the pressure’s on to release the Americans. How is this playing for him politically, do you think?
  4433.  
  4434. LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: Well, obviously it’ll be great if Americans are released with those hostages. But my sources are saying that President Biden also doesn’t get a lot of credit for his successes, not only on this, but on a whole host of things. So that does concern Democrats on Capitol Hill....
  4435.  
  4436. Yeah, Bidenomics has really been, become a negative word, especially among Democrats, because it’s not working. I was texting with some Democratic members of Congress last night just trying to get a read over the holiday weekend, what they’re hearing at home and what people are saying, and these members said that it is just not looking good for President Biden politically out there, that he would probably lose some swing states if the election were held today. So they have a lot of work to do to once again, like I said, try to get credit for the successes that he’s had over the past two years which he keeps on getting blamed for everything bad that’s happened.
  4437.  
  4438.  
  4439.  
  4440.  
  4441.  
  4442. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Caldwell maintained Democrats ‘have a lot of work to do to once again, like I said, try to get credit for the successes’ President Biden has ‘had over the past two years,’ but she’s clearly just as invested as any liberal Democrat in advancing that narrative to help Biden. And in that interest, she reflects much of the press corps which want to influence the outcome, as proven by how complaints that Biden isn’t getting the credit he supposedly deserves have become a common media theme.”
  4443.  
  4444. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4445.  
  4446.  
  4447.  
  4448.  
  4449. ■ November 20: Liberal Media Scream: ABC’s Jonathan Karl says he wrote book to warn voters away from Trump
  4450.  
  4451. (Washington Examiner post)
  4452.  
  4453.  
  4454. For this week’s Liberal Media Scream, we feature the latest example of the legacy media going from self-appointed instant fact-checkers on former President Donald Trump to out-and-out enemies.
  4455.  
  4456. The choice is ABC’s Jonathan Karl, who admitted that he wrote his latest book on Trump to warn America about him.
  4457.  
  4458. Asked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS why Trump is leading the Republican nomination contest, Karl said that “superficially” there’s “a sense” that things were better during the Trump presidency. And, he added of his just-released Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party, “that’s why I wrote this book.”
  4459.  
  4460. He explained that “if people are going to go into this next election thinking about that, they also need to be thinking, not just about what Trump was, but what he is now and what he is proposing and planning to do, what a second Trump administration would look like. And I don’t think people have come to terms with that at all.”
  4461.  
  4462. Karl on Thursday’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS:
  4463.  
  4464. “I think part of what’s happened is people look back. There’s anxiety in the country. People have economic anxiety. There’s discontent with Joe Biden and I think there’s some superficially a sense like ‘Look, if we could only go back to four years ago, the world was relatively at peace, inflation was low, everything was —’ I think there is some of that and that’s why I wrote this book because if people are going to go into this next election thinking about that, they also need to be thinking, not just about what Trump was, but what he is now and what he is proposing and planning to do, what a second Trump administration would look like. And I don’t think people have come to terms with that at all.”
  4465.  
  4466.  
  4467.  
  4468.  
  4469.  
  4470. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Karl’s quest is the very definition of improper political advocacy by a journalist. His job is to report the news in an impartial manner, not jump into the fray when a candidate he hates gets popular, and write a book to convince voters they are making a bad choice. How could any Trump supporter, or any Republican, ever trust his reporting when they know he has a personal interest in directing the outcome?”
  4471.  
  4472. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4473.  
  4474.  
  4475.  
  4476.  
  4477. ■ November 13: Liberal Media Scream: CNN’s Hunt says no room for ‘happy and sunny’ in GOP
  4478.  
  4479. (Washington Examiner post)
  4480.  
  4481.  
  4482. For this week’s Liberal Media Scream, we feature the latest CNN absurdity, a blanket declaration that there is no place for happiness in the Republican Party.
  4483.  
  4484. The claim came today from CNN’s Kasie Hunt, who was giving her early morning assessment on the decision by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, joining former Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines.
  4485.  
  4486. “There’s just no appetite in the Republican base right now for someone who’s happy and sunny,” she said, citing her election night sources.
  4487.  
  4488. Of course, many pollsters would suggest that there is just no appetite in the Republican base for anybody other than former President Donald Trump, and GOP voters seem to be pretty happy with that.
  4489.  
  4490. Hunt, CNN’s chief national affairs analyst, on Monday’s CNN This Morning:
  4491.  
  4492. “The noteworthy thing to me about this — I mean, look, I think it was pretty clear that Tim Scott’s campaign never took off the way, frankly, a lot of people in Washington thought that it might. He had, you know, all the ingredients to be really successful in the traditional Republican Party. He had a lot of backing. Honestly, he wasn’t public about it, but a lot of the people who have been working against Donald Trump for more traditional candidates like Mitt Romney were working on his operation trying to figure out how they could make that happen.
  4493.  
  4494. “But when I talked to sources, and I did a lot of this on election night last week, they keep saying to me that there’s just no appetite in the Republican base right now for someone who’s happy and sunny. They’re angry. The base is angry. And that’s a big part of why Donald Trump has had such a durable lead in this race because he campaigns in a much different way. Tim Scott tried to be the kind of ‘Morning in America’ Republican candidate, and it’s just not what people are into. So, you know, it does make sense. He saw the writing on the wall, especially about the fourth debate, and here we are.”
  4495.  
  4496.  
  4497.  
  4498.  
  4499.  
  4500. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “None of the GOP presidential candidates are coming close to Trump, so why the particular argument Tim Scott failed because he’s a ‘happy warrior’ and the electorate is motivated by anger? Trump fans would contend his rallies are peppered with funny lines and upbeat messaging about the basis for his movement, Make America Great Again, which in itself is a happy and aspirational quest for a return to the best of America.”
  4501.  
  4502. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4503.  
  4504.  
  4505.  
  4506.  
  4507. ■ November 6: Liberal Media Scream: CNN’s Zakaria says Biden better on border than Trump
  4508.  
  4509. (Washington Examiner post)
  4510.  
  4511.  
  4512. For this week’s Liberal Media Scream we feature the zaniest pro-White House spin yet on the historic border crisis caused by President Joe Biden’s policies.
  4513.  
  4514. While big city “sanctuary” mayors are crying uncle because the president’s policies are dumping in thousands of illegal immigrants without providing any money or help with housing, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria somehow thinks that the White House is handling the crisis well.
  4515.  
  4516. Biden is “actually not doing a bad job,” he said on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher. For proof, he cited the deportation of illegal immigrants, ignoring the enormous crowds of migrants waved into the U.S. every day and the high number of those who slip in undetected.
  4517.  
  4518. Zakaria on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO:
  4519.  
  4520. “Biden’s actually not doing a bad job, they have deported more people — if you think that’s right and I do because you want a system of laws, right? They have deported more people under the Biden administration than Trump did. They’ve been harder line. The problem for Biden is, and this is a problem for Democrats, you can’t take credit for it because then you’re going to outrage, the progressive wing is going to go nuts. And so, even the things he does, it’s like stealth enforcement. You can’t talk about it.”
  4521.  
  4522.  
  4523.  
  4524.  
  4525.  
  4526. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Talk about missing the forest for the trees. The only reason the Biden administration deported anyone was because of the Trump-imposed Title 42 to deal with COVID, which stayed in place for more than two years of his administration until he ended it in May. In the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2.4 million people crossed the southern border, the highest number since records started being kept in 1960, and that was the third straight record year, all under Biden.”
  4527.  
  4528. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4529.  
  4530.  
  4531.  
  4532.  
  4533. ■ October 30: Liberal Media Scream: Speaker Johnson takes compare him to KKK and mass shooter
  4534.  
  4535. (Washington Examiner post)
  4536.  
  4537.  
  4538. We could see this coming from miles away.
  4539.  
  4540. For this week’s Liberal Media Scream, we feature the predictably sad reaction of the press to the unanimous Republican vote to confirm soft-spoken Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as the 56th House speaker last week.
  4541.  
  4542. Outlet after outlet tried to portray the Bible-toting Johnson as out of touch with America, instead comparing him to a KKK leader. It’s surprising liberal media outlets didn’t identify him with his middle name, James Michael Johnson, like mass killers.
  4543.  
  4544. Even on CNN, analyst Gloria Borger conceded that the media was trying too hard to demonize the little-known lawmaker. It is “hard to demonize” him, she said, explaining, “He’s not the devil incarnate.”
  4545.  
  4546. But Bill Maher and his crew didn’t get the memo.
  4547.  
  4548. First, on his Friday show, Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said to audience applause, “The reason this guy is speaker is none of us have the time to read his resume and realize he’s David Duke-lite.”
  4549.  
  4550. Maher pushed back on that characterization, but he offered his own invective, calling Johnson “a religious nut” before raising last week’s mass shooter of 18 in Maine: “Apparently he heard voices, and I thought, ‘Is he that different than Mike Johnson?’”
  4551.  
  4552. From Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO and Max:
  4553.  
  4554. SCOTT GALLOWAY: The whole point here is that we separate church and state, that we believe in the peaceful transfer of power, and the reason this guy is speaker is none of us have the time to read his resume and realize he’s David Duke-lite.
  4555.  
  4556. BILL MAHER: Well, we do now. I don’t know if he’s David Duke-lite — I read today he has an adopted black son. I don’t think David Duke would do that, but he is a religious nut.
  4557. ....
  4558.  
  4559. MAHER: When you’re this much of a religious fanatic, there is no room for real democracy. That’s not what you believe in. He said it today: Look in the Bible — that’s my worldview. I was reading about this horrible shooting in Maine. We don’t know much about the guy yet, but apparently he heard voices, and I thought, ‘Is he that different than Mike Johnson?’ I mean, degree, yes, but it’s thinner than you think.
  4560.  
  4561.  
  4562.  
  4563.  
  4564.  
  4565. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “What hypocrisy. You can’t decry how Donald Trump and MAGA have lowered discourse in America and undermined respect for democracy and then smear the incoming speaker of the House as no different than a racist Klan leader or a mass murderer. The comparisons are ridiculous and should be beneath anyone who considers themselves a serious political analyst.”
  4566.  
  4567. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4568.  
  4569.  
  4570.  
  4571.  
  4572. ■ October 23: Liberal Media Scream: Morning Joe warns of Trump retaliation just short of firing squads
  4573.  
  4574. (Washington Examiner post)
  4575.  
  4576.  
  4577. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features MSNBC host Joe Scarborough speculating on a second Trump White House, ranting that it will be one retaliation after another for slights he’s felt over the past eight years, starting with the media and courts.
  4578.  
  4579. On his show this morning, Scarborough compared Trump to hard-line Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “He’s wiped out the judiciary, he’s wiped out the free press,” Scarborough charged.
  4580.  
  4581. There was no mention, of course, of how Trump made history as president with his appointments to federal courts, including three of the current U.S. Supreme Court justices, or that he was among the most accessible presidents in recent memory despite his verbal hits on the press.
  4582.  
  4583. But at least he offered that Trump won’t line up his enemies and shoot them.
  4584.  
  4585. Scarborough’s ruminations came during an interview with the Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, who just wrote an article titled “Netanyahu’s Attack on Democracy Left Israel Unprepared.”
  4586.  
  4587. Joe Scarborough on Monday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC:
  4588.  
  4589. “I always tell people, if you want to see what Donald Trump is going to do if he gets reelected, don’t think about him lining up people against the wall and having them shot."
  4590.  
  4591. “Just see what [Viktor] Orban has done in Hungary where he’s bragged about having illiberal democracy, and he’s wiped out the judiciary, he’s wiped out the free press. And Anne [Applebaum], I suppose, that’s probably what Donald Trump will look for as a blueprint if he gets elected again.”
  4592.  
  4593.  
  4594.  
  4595.  
  4596.  
  4597. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Left-wing paranoia perfectly encapsulated by Joe Scarborough. No matter how bad you think a second Trump presidency would be for the nation, the idea that just because he makes derogatory remarks about judges, prosecutors, and journalists means he wants to ‘wipe out’ the judiciary and free press, is ridiculous. And even if he were so inclined, the U.S. political system would never allow it, leaving Scarborough’s warning as little more than baseless scaremongering.”
  4598.  
  4599. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4600.  
  4601.  
  4602.  
  4603.  
  4604. ■ October 16: Liberal Media Scream: CBS anchor scoffs, ‘Indictment’ of Biden?
  4605.  
  4606. (Washington Examiner post)
  4607.  
  4608.  
  4609. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the hypocrisy and bewildering ignorance of the media’s coverage of the classified documents cases both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump face.
  4610.  
  4611. On the hypocrisy front, consider all the hours of TV coverage Trump received for his handling of documents compared to Biden. Also, consider how much time the networks gave the extraordinary two days of questions Biden faced last weekend from the prosecutor: just 48 seconds.
  4612.  
  4613. Then watch as CBS Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan appears astonished that Biden’s case and charges are similar to Trump’s and that a House Republican chairman would even suggest that they should be handled the same way.
  4614.  
  4615. “Indictment?” she interjected when her guest, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “President Biden needs the same consequence that they pursue with President Trump.”
  4616.  
  4617. From Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS:
  4618.  
  4619. MARGARET BRENNAN: You were talking about classified documents mishandled by the current president, and you said that when it came to Biden and Trump, they’re both equally egregious with equal classification issues. This past week, President Biden was interviewed by special counsel Robert Hur. Will there be legal consequences? Will your committee do anything to act on this? I mean, what exactly do you mean equally egregious?
  4620.  
  4621. REP. MIKE TURNER: Well, when you look at the documents, both the classification level and the subject matter, both sides, Trump and Biden's documents, if they had been released in the public or gotten into the hands of nefarious parties, would be damaging to the United States national security. When I look at those documents, there are documents on both sides, equally egregious, that would have negative consequences to our means, methods, techniques, and our allies. Now, in this instance, I think President Biden needs the same consequence that they pursue with President Trump. The actions are the same. And in this instance, if you notice—
  4622.  
  4623. BRENNAN: Indictment?
  4624.  
  4625. TURNER: You’re getting leak after leak after leak on the Trump documents. You’re hearing nothing on the Biden documents. So you’re continuing to see the inequality that comes out of the Justice Department as there’s silence on the other side with respect to Biden’s. And by the way, he was a serial classified document hoarder. I reviewed documents that were from all the time that he’s been in government. This really is a very serious breach by President Biden.
  4626.  
  4627. BRENNAN: Just to be clear here, though, are you saying that President Biden had top secret and TS/SCI classification level documents in his personal home?
  4628.  
  4629. TURNER: That’s public already, Margaret, so I’m not confirming something that people don’t already know. That is correct.
  4630.  
  4631. BRENNAN: OK. So I think you’re saying that he should be indicted when you say treated the same?
  4632.  
  4633. TURNER: I think they need to be treated exactly the same. Now, they’re continuing their investigation with President Biden. I don’t think if President Biden in the end has been found to violate the law, and I believe from what I’ve seen that he has, that he should be treated any differently than Donald Trump. Why would he? Just because he’s president or because he’s a Democrat? And that’s how the Department of Justice has been acting. They need to be treated the same.
  4634.  
  4635.  
  4636.  
  4637.  
  4638.  
  4639. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Brennan’s naivete about President Biden’s potential very serious misdeeds and seeming surprise that a veteran congressman would suggest he deserves to get treated just as harshly as former President Trump, reflects the larger disinterest in Biden’s behavior by the Trump-obsessed press corps. Indeed, special counsel Robert Hur interviewed Biden over two days last week, yet the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts offered a measly 48 seconds of coverage in total.”
  4640.  
  4641. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4642.  
  4643.  
  4644.  
  4645.  
  4646. ■ October 9: Liberal Media Scream: CBS touts waitress jobs as sign Bidenomics works
  4647.  
  4648. (Washington Examiner post)
  4649.  
  4650.  
  4651. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the transparent effort by the media to prop up Bidenomics at a time when most people believe costs and expenses under President Joe Biden are way too high.
  4652.  
  4653. CBS led the way over the weekend when Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan said that a jobs report showing restaurant jobs up was proof Biden’s claims are right.
  4654.  
  4655. She cited it to counter claims from 2024 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) that the economy is not doing enough for people.
  4656.  
  4657. “That seems to undercut your argument that the economy’s broken,” Brennan said.
  4658.  
  4659. Scott slapped down that logic. He said, “Well, all you have to do is talk to the average American family and ask them what they feel — how they feel about Bidenomics. The answer is very simple. We’ve lost over $5,000 of spending power since January of 2021. We should always celebrate the creation of jobs, but we should never forget that we went 52 consecutive paychecks — 52 consecutive paychecks — with a loss of spending power.”
  4660.  
  4661. From Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS:
  4662.  
  4663. MARGARET BRENNAN: On Friday, we spoke with Republican senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott from his home state of South Carolina. Our conversation began on the economy and the surprisingly robust September jobs report.
  4664.  
  4665. BRENNAN TO SEN. TIM SCOTT: Friday's jobs numbers shattered expectations. It showed some economic momentum. In fact, restaurant hospitality hiring is back to pre-pandemic levels. That seems to undercut your argument that the economy’s broken.
  4666.  
  4667. SCOTT: Well, all you have to do is talk to the average American family and ask them what they feel — how they feel about Bidenomics. The answer is very simple. We’ve lost over $5,000 of spending power since January of 2021. We should always celebrate the creation of jobs, but we should never forget that we went 52 consecutive paychecks — 52 consecutive paychecks — with a loss of spending power.
  4668.  
  4669. BRENNAN: And you blame political leadership, not the Federal Reserve?
  4670.  
  4671. SCOTT: Well, if you think about the fact that over the last, I guess, year and a half, we’ve seen 16% inflation since Joe Biden’s taken office, which led to 11 consecutive rate increases, that downward pressure on our economy certainly created cracks and fissures throughout the economy. That was caused by Joe Biden’s lack of leadership and understanding of how to create jobs in America.
  4672.  
  4673.  
  4674.  
  4675.  
  4676.  
  4677. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Brennan put Democratic talking point spin ahead of reality in getting so excited about a jobs report largely built on gains in part-time employment and government jobs. Her priority was to undermine Scott’s very persuasive argument that Bidenomics is a disaster, something recognized by the vast majority of people outside of the media elite.”
  4678.  
  4679. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4680.  
  4681.  
  4682.  
  4683.  
  4684. ■ October 2: Liberal Media Scream: MAGA just racists, says MSNBC regular
  4685.  
  4686. (Washington Examiner post)
  4687.  
  4688.  
  4689. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the continued smearing of MAGA by MSNBC, this time including the broken-record claim that supporters of former President Donald Trump are racists.
  4690.  
  4691. Ignoring Trump’s support among black people, his friendships with notable African Americans, and his appointments of black people to top jobs during his administration, MSNBC let legal correspondent Elie Mystal rant that Trump is running for president again “on white grievance” and adding that “without racism, Trump is just dumber Chris Christie, all right?”
  4692.  
  4693. From Sunday night’s The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC:
  4694.  
  4695. MEHDI HASAN: When you watch Donald Trump talking about “dampening the forest floor,” and then you look at polls that show him neck and neck with Biden or maybe in the lead by 10 points or 5 points over Biden, do you put your head in your hair in your hands?
  4696.  
  4697. ELIE MYSTAL: Look, Mehdi, not really. There is a recent poll, a study out of the University of Chicago that said the biggest indicator of whether or not you support Trump is whether or not you believe racism has been defeated, right? Whether or not you believe systemic racism doesn’t exist, whether or not you believe that what white people face more racism than people of color. Trump’s running on white grievance. It’s how he’s always been. It’s what he’s always done. And I feel like reducing it to racism always makes certain kinds of Democrats squeamish. We want there to be a bigger answer. We want to believe maybe Republicans actually think you should “dampen the forests.” We want to believe there is a reason. There’s nothing there there. All it is is white grievance. Without racism, Trump is just dumber Chris Christie, all right? And so, that is why he is where he is because he plays into the racism of his fans.
  4698.  
  4699.  
  4700.  
  4701.  
  4702.  
  4703. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “How convenient it must be to be so comfortable dismissing the political choice of a large portion of the public by tarring them all as a bunch of racists. Saves time on having to actually address what failures of your side the top candidate on the other side is fulfilling. But stay in your bubble, Mr. Mystal, and you may very well be surprised when those polls, showing Trump beating Biden, come true.”
  4704.  
  4705. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4706.  
  4707.  
  4708.  
  4709.  
  4710. ■ September 25: No Liberal Media Scream this week.
  4711.  
  4712.  
  4713.  
  4714. ■ September 18: Liberal Media Scream: Meet the Press’s Kristen Welker debuts as Chuck Todd clone
  4715.  
  4716. (Washington Examiner post)
  4717.  
  4718.  
  4719. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the debut of Kristen Welker as host of NBC’s Meet the Press. But other than a new face, there was no change from the lefty bias of the declining show’s MC.
  4720.  
  4721. To help Welker's first episode, former President Donald Trump agreed to appear. In return, he faced the usual liberal fact-checking interruptions, especially when answering questions about abortion.
  4722.  
  4723. Several times, Welker tried to quiet Trump’s charge that Democrats favor abortion right up to birth. “Democrats aren't saying that. Democrats are not saying that,” she said.
  4724.  
  4725. Her performance won failing grades from conservatives, who weren’t expecting a big shift from the bias of former host Chuck Todd.
  4726.  
  4727. Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway was first out with an analysis headlined, "NBC’s Kristen Welker Lied Repeatedly About Democrats’ Extreme Abortion Position." “Kristen Welker brazenly and repeatedly lied in a bizarre, conspiracy-laden debate with former President Donald Trump on Sunday,” she wrote, adding, “Welker interrupted her own pre-taped debate with the president to insert her own ‘fact checks’ that were false or were not responsive to actual claims Trump made.”
  4728.  
  4729. From Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  4730.  
  4731. DONALD TRUMP: Roe v. Wade. For 52 years, people, including Democrats, wanted it to go back to states so that states could make it right. Roe v. Wade, I did something that nobody thought was possible, and Roe v. Wade was terminated and put back to the states. Now, people, pro-lifers, have the right to negotiate for the first time. They had no rights at all because the radical people on this are really the Democrats that say after five months, six months, seven months, eight months, and even after birth, you’re allowed to terminate the baby.
  4732.  
  4733. KRISTEN WELKER: Democrats aren't saying that. Democrats are not saying that. Does it bother you, though, that women say their lives are being put at risk? Do you feel you bear any responsibility because, as you say, you are responsible for having Roe v. Wade overturned?
  4734.  
  4735. TRUMP: What’s going to happen? It’s an issue that’s been going on for a long time. It’s a very polarizing issue. Because of what's been done and because of the fact we brought it back to the states, we're going to have people come together on this issue. They're gonna determine the time because nobody wants to see five, six, seven, eight, nine months. Nobody wants to see abortions when you have a baby in the womb. I said with Hillary Clinton when we had the debate, I made a statement: Rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, you're allowed to do that, and you shouldn't be allowed to do that.
  4736.  
  4737. WELKER: Again, no one is arguing for that, that's not a part of anyone's platform, Mr. President.
  4738.  
  4739. TRUMP: The Democrats are able to kill the baby after birth, and nobody wants that.
  4740.  
  4741. WELKER: Democrats don’t want that, either.
  4742.  
  4743.  
  4744.  
  4745.  
  4746.  
  4747. Kevin Tober, news analyst for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Kristen Welker either never read the 2020 Democratic platform or she's purposefully trying to gaslight her viewers in the guise of a ‘fact check’ of Trump. The current platform of the Democratic Party poses no limits on abortions. Instead of pointing this fact out, Welker decided to scold Trump for telling the truth, which apparently isn't allowed on NBC. If this is what we can expect from Welker as the new moderator of Meet the Press, Chuck Todd might as well have stayed on as the moderator. Different anchor, same liberal media bias.”
  4748.  
  4749. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4750.  
  4751.  
  4752.  
  4753.  
  4754. ■ September 11: Liberal Media Scream: Chuck Todd puts self among the greats
  4755.  
  4756. (Washington Examiner post)
  4757.  
  4758.  
  4759. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the departure of one of our favorite representatives of bias, Chuck Todd, the outgoing host of NBC’s Meet the Press.
  4760.  
  4761. Signing off from his daily and Sunday shows, Todd said he hoped he helped educate viewers on the issues of the day and that he would now turn more to nuance and bridging divides.
  4762.  
  4763. As he looks to his future as the network’s political analyst, he said he would follow the paths of two of the network’s past greats, David Brinkley and Tim Russert.
  4764.  
  4765. “I will continue, of course, to be a big part of NBC’s political coverage because, as Tom Brokaw said to me, ‘Look, some networks do some things well, but nobody does politics like NBC.’ And he was referring back all the way to David Brinkley. And that is sort of the tradition I’ve always said, from Brinkley to Russert, and that’s the stuff I want to carry on,” Todd said.
  4766.  
  4767. His final comments on both shows are in this clip:
  4768.  
  4769. Todd, at the end of Friday’s daily Meet the Press NOW on the NBC News NOW streaming channel:
  4770.  
  4771. “On my first day on the job on Meet the Press, I was handed an audience survey of Sunday show viewers. The No. 1 reason why folks decided to tune into any Sunday show, the No. 1 reason: to get educated. It wasn’t to find out if their side was winning or losing. They just wanted to know.”
  4772.  
  4773. “It’s that education piece I’m hanging my hat on for the rest of my professional life because one thing we all lament lately is the lack of knowledge and nuance in our politics. That’s a vacuum I hope to continue to fill, whether in a traditional news platform or other venues —documentaries, docudramas, or even too-close-to-the-truth fiction.”
  4774.  
  4775. “I’ll continue to be a big part of NBC News political coverage because no one in this business covers politics as well as NBC. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you down the road.”
  4776.  
  4777. Todd, wrapping up Meet the Press on NBC on Sunday morning:
  4778.  
  4779. “So, for nearly a decade, I’ve had the honor of helping to explain America to Washington and Washington to America, as Kristen [Welker] just quoted me about. And it’s that education piece that I’m hanging my hat on for the rest of my professional life. One thing we will lament — we all lament lately — is the lack of knowledge and nuance in our politics and citizenship. That’s a vacuum I hope to continue to fill, whether in our continued news coverage here at NBC or via other venues, like docuseries and docudramas, focused on bridging our divides, piercing these political bubbles. And I will continue, of course, to be a big part of NBC’s political coverage because, as Tom Brokaw said to me, ‘Look, some networks do some things well, but nobody does politics like NBC.’ And he was referring back all the way to David Brinkley. And that is sort of the tradition I’ve always said, from Brinkley to Russert, and that’s the stuff I want to carry on.”
  4780.  
  4781. “So that’s all for today. Thanks for watching and for so many years of loyalty to me and to this show. I’m happy to say my colleague, Kristen Welker, is going to be here next week because it doesn’t matter who sits in this chair. If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.”
  4782.  
  4783.  
  4784.  
  4785.  
  4786.  
  4787. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Todd, pretentious to the end. In all his years hosting Meet the Press, he never showed much interest in bringing ‘nuance’ to his liberal agenda or ‘bridging’ divides or ‘piercing ... political bubbles,’ to say nothing of never matching the journalism of David Brinkley or Tim Russert. I watched David Brinkley and Tim Russert. Chuck Todd is no David Brinkley or Tim Russert.”
  4788.  
  4789. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4790.  
  4791.  
  4792.  
  4793.  
  4794. ■ September 4: Liberal Media Scream: Biden’s coverage ‘tougher than he deserves’
  4795.  
  4796. (Washington Examiner post)
  4797.  
  4798.  
  4799. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the classic attitude of the Washington press corps toward Democratic presidents that originally got us working with the Media Research Center to highlight out-of-touch newsies.
  4800.  
  4801. It is the complaint that the press is too tough when, in fact, they have barely scratched the surface of what some critics believe to be a corrupt presidential operation dating back to President Joe Biden’s days as vice president under former President Barack Obama.
  4802.  
  4803. NBC’s Meet the Press featured Franklin Foer, an Atlantic writer who just released a bestselling book on the president titled The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.
  4804.  
  4805. Foer told moderator Chuck Todd that “Trump caused the media to become so emotional, to get so engaged in covering all the high drama.”
  4806.  
  4807. And with Biden, he said, there has been a "desire on the part of the press to reassert its standards of objectivity.”
  4808.  
  4809. But, he added, Biden has continued to complain about his press, just like every other president. “He has been covered probably tougher than he deserves,” Foer said.
  4810.  
  4811. That line prompted our partner Brent Baker, the Media Research Center's vice president of research and publications, to grade it five out of five screams.
  4812.  
  4813. From Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  4814.  
  4815. CHUCK TODD: You write: “Biden considered his poor approval rating a failure of the media, which someone neglected to note all the ways in which his administration was superior to Trump’s. It was also a failure of his own White House to effectively communicate. He complained that there weren’t enough surrogates on television defending him.” I’m shocked to find out that a White House believes they have a communications problem, not a substance problem.
  4816.  
  4817. FRANKLIN FOER: Right. So I think that Biden has — of course, every president who suffers an upside-down approval rating is going to moan about the media, and I think that there is some truth to it in his case where Trump caused the media to become so emotional, to get so engaged in covering all of the high drama. And I think, with the Biden administration, there’s been this desire on the part of the press to reassert its standards of objectivity. So I think, on certain measures, he’s probably right. He has been covered probably tougher than he deserves. But it also —
  4818.  
  4819. TODD: There’s no curve? He’s not being graded on a curve?
  4820.  
  4821. FOER: No.
  4822.  
  4823. TODD: No.
  4824.  
  4825.  
  4826.  
  4827.  
  4828.  
  4829. Baker explains our weekly pick: “To channel what President Biden would say, ‘not a joke.’ Foer was seemingly quite serious. But it’s a ludicrous assessment to anyone but the most enthused Biden sycophants or Democratic partisans. To contend that Biden is the subject of media ‘objectivity’ and has received ‘tougher’ coverage than he ‘deserves,’ does not pass the laugh test.”
  4830.  
  4831. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4832.  
  4833.  
  4834.  
  4835.  
  4836. ■ August 28: Liberal Media Scream: Dour Dana bashes Ramaswamy over KKK reference
  4837.  
  4838. (Washington Examiner post)
  4839.  
  4840.  
  4841. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features CNN anchor Dana Bash repeatedly beating GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s comparison of liberal "Squad" member Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) to "a modern grand wizard of the KKK."
  4842.  
  4843. Over more than five minutes, the anchor harangued Ramaswamy, who said he made the comparison to spark a debate over the lawmaker’s suggestion that candidates of color should be in lockstep with liberals.
  4844.  
  4845. After four minutes of her bashing, an exasperated Ramaswamy said: “Dana, I think you’re doing, with due respect, what many in the media do, picking on some fringe comment in the context of a broader context that I was offering in a speech, avoiding the meat of the issue.”
  4846.  
  4847. Here’s a sampling from CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday:
  4848.  
  4849. DANA BASH: You took issue with comments from Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). She reportedly said, quote, “we don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice.” About that, you said, “These are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK.” You know, I’m sure, the KKK was responsible for more than a century’s worth of horrific lynchings, rapes, murders of black people. How in any way are the views you’re talking about comparable to the views and atrocities committed by the KKK?”
  4850.  
  4851. VIVEK RAMASWAMY: What I said is: The grand wizards of the KKK would be proud of what they would hear her say, because there’s nothing more racist than saying that your skin color predicts something about the content of your viewpoints or your ideas.
  4852.  
  4853. BASH: No, you didn’t just say that. You didn’t just say that they would be proud. You said, “These are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK.”
  4854.  
  4855. RAMASWAMY: It is the same spirit. You’re right about that, Dana. I think it is the same spirit to say that I can look at you and, based on just your skin color, that I know something about the content of your character, that I know something about the content of the viewpoints you’re allowed to express.
  4856.  
  4857. ....
  4858.  
  4859. BASH: But can you have an intellectually honest conversation when you accuse her of being a grand wizard of the KKK? Can you have that intellectually honest discussion with that kind of rhetoric?
  4860.  
  4861. ....
  4862.  
  4863. BASH: If you want to have an intellectual question, do you think that maybe comparing her to the grand wizard and the notion of what she said to being a modern leader of the KKK was maybe a step too far, or you stand by what you said?
  4864.  
  4865. ....
  4866.  
  4867. BASH: What I did was explain to our viewers that you were asked a question and you took it to a point where you called a sitting member of Congress who is black, who was having discussions about race, calling her the modern grand wizard of the KKK. And I’m just not sure how that’s open and honest discussion.        
  4868.  
  4869.  
  4870.  
  4871.  
  4872.  
  4873. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Bash’s constant harping was not good television. Ramaswamy explained his point and she should have moved on. But she so vehemently disagreed with him that she wouldn’t let go. In doing so, she helped prove Ramaswamy’s point about the elite who won’t countenance any contrary views on race relations, not even from the target of a racist attack.”
  4874.  
  4875. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4876.  
  4877.  
  4878.  
  4879.  
  4880. ■ August 21: No Liberal Media Scream this week
  4881.  
  4882.  
  4883.  
  4884. ■ August 14: Liberal Media Scream: Media rage at MAGA ‘alternative reality’
  4885.  
  4886. (Washington Examiner post)
  4887.  
  4888.  
  4889. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the latest example of the sputtering anger Washington journalists have at the support former President Donald Trump has from his MAGA millions.
  4890.  
  4891. Appearing Sunday on ABC’s This Week, Susan Glasser, Washington reporter for the New Yorker and a veteran of the Washington Post and Politico, coughed up a word salad to the storyline that a growing list of indictments is good for Trump while the building criminal focus on first son Hunter Biden is bad for President Joe Biden.
  4892.  
  4893. From the roundtable on Sunday’s This Week on ABC:
  4894.  
  4895. Susan Glasser: “Part of this is the incredible distortion field where we are all somehow living in Donald Trump’s alternate reality, right? We are talking about, ‘Well, it’s a great benefit to him,’ according to, you know, the big story in the New York Times today that he’s been indicted criminally, what, three times — and it looks like a fourth coming up this week — because we’re living in this warped distortion field of a Republican primary in which Donald Trump is stampeding? It’s a minority of a minority in the country, and so then, you have something like these series of abortion rights referenda in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision.
  4896.  
  4897. “And you realize that in this country, even in deep-red states, there are solid majorities that don’t think, you know, Donald Trump should be the president again, who defeated him in the popular vote in 2016 and in 2020, who support, by actually record numbers, abortion rights, and yet we live in this world where it’s somehow good that Donald Trump is a criminal defendant but somehow bad electorally for the president that his son is being investigated for something, that as far as we know, does not directly concern Joe Biden.”
  4898.  
  4899.  
  4900.  
  4901.  
  4902.  
  4903. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “What an incredible lack of inquisitiveness for a journalist. Glasser is living in her own ‘alternate reality,’ one inhabited by virtually all of her Washington press corps colleagues who are enraged by everything Trump but have put on blinders when it comes to President Joe Biden. They don’t want to give legitimacy to anything which could harm Biden’s reelection fortunes.”
  4904.  
  4905. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4906.  
  4907.  
  4908.  
  4909.  
  4910. ■ August 7: Liberal Media Scream: Joy Behar would exile Trump to Saudi Arabia
  4911.  
  4912. (Washington Examiner post)
  4913.  
  4914.  
  4915. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the ladies of The View jumping to a whole new level of "Trump derangement syndrome" following the third criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump.
  4916.  
  4917. Led by Trump Hater in Chief Joy Behar, they talked up a plea deal that prosecutor Jack Smith could offer that sends the former president away for good — but not jail. Instead, and due to concerns that the Secret Service might not allow a former president to live in a jail cell if he’s convicted, Behar suggested exile in Saudi Arabia.
  4918.  
  4919. “Wouldn’t that be good?” she said to some audience laughter. “I don’t even care if he goes to jail. I don’t have it in my heart to punish the guy. I just want him to go away and stop ruining my country."
  4920.  
  4921. From Thursday’s The View on ABC:
  4922.  
  4923. JOY BEHAR: "Well, what about making a deal? What about, Sunny, if he makes a deal with [special counsel Jack] Smith?"
  4924.  
  4925. SUNNY HOSTIN: "Without jail time?"
  4926.  
  4927. BEHAR: "Without jail, and he says, “I’m going away and moving to Saudi Arabia”?
  4928.  
  4929. Wouldn’t that be good? Just go away. We don’t — I don’t even care if he goes to jail. I don’t have it in my heart to punish the guy. I just want him to go away and stop ruining my country."
  4930.  
  4931. HOSTIN: "I think there are certain prosecutors that would offer him a plea agreement without time if he would agree to never run for public office again anywhere."
  4932.  
  4933. BEHAR: "And go away. I don’t want to even see him in the Enquirer."
  4934.  
  4935.  
  4936.  
  4937.  
  4938.  
  4939. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Presumably, The View does not air in Saudi Arabia, so this idea might have some appeal to Trump — and many of us — who wouldn’t mind never again hearing Joy Behar’s voice, but I’d recommend flipping this and exiling the entire crew of The View to Saudi Arabia so none of us have to hear their discombobulated daily rantings.”
  4940.  
  4941. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4942.  
  4943.  
  4944.  
  4945.  
  4946. ■ July 31: Liberal Media Scream: Chuck Todd still trying to downplay Hunter Biden scandals
  4947.  
  4948. (Washington Examiner post)
  4949.  
  4950.  
  4951. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a Sunday network public affairs show host that President Joe Biden and his cronies are really going to miss when he finally leaves his perch.
  4952.  
  4953. It’s NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, of course, playing “D” on the Hunter Biden scandals exploding in the news today.
  4954.  
  4955. On his Sunday show and while interviewing yet another Democratic politician, he sounded almost apologetic for having to address the first son who is facing tax and gun charges and has been linked to bribery allegations along with his father.
  4956.  
  4957. Said Todd to his guest, Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Biden’s home state of Delaware, “Republicans are gonna accuse” the president of misdeeds, “they’re going to make the accusation, whether they have the evidence or not,” because they “have an information ecosystem that helps amplify it.”
  4958.  
  4959. Todd recently announced that he was leaving his show in September to become the network's "long form" political analyst.
  4960.  
  4961. From Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  4962.  
  4963. CHUCK TODD: Let me start with the Hunter Biden situation and I understand that, you know, you believe this is all being emphasized due to politics, the Republican — the House Republicans are doing. Let me ask you this, do you think it would behoove the president for him to come out and say, “Hey, I had no business dealings with my son. My son’s issues are my son’s issues”? Do you think he needs to say that more directly because there’s a lot of people that believe something else happened here?
  4964.  
  4965. SEN. CHRIS COONS: Let’s be clear about that point, Chuck. There’s been a five-year investigation. Five years by a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney. This investigation started during the Trump administration and they’ve come forward with not one shred of evidence tying President Biden to any of this. I am encouraged that, in sharp contrast to President Trump, you’ve just detailed his mountain of legal problems where President Trump is fighting, and pushing back and obstructing, Hunter Biden’s come forward, taken responsibility, paid his late taxes. As you just discussed with Chuck Rosenberg, I think the hiccup in the Delaware District Courthouse will get ironed out pretty quickly and I don’t think President Biden needs to say anything more than he has.
  4966.  
  4967. TODD: House Republicans are gonna accuse him. They’re going to make the accusation —
  4968.  
  4969. COONS: They’re going [to] accuse him of all sorts of stuff.
  4970.  
  4971. TODD: — whether they have the evidence or not.
  4972.  
  4973. COONS: Correct.
  4974.  
  4975. TODD: The question — and they may have an information ecosystem that helps amplify it to a point where you don’t think he needs to just — “Hey, despite what you hear, just so you know, I don’t do business with my son or my brother"?
  4976.  
  4977. COONS: I think he’s been perfectly clear.
  4978.  
  4979.  
  4980.  
  4981.  
  4982.  
  4983. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “If only Chuck Todd had shown such reluctance to promote accusations against President Trump about ‘Russian collusion’ made by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and others, which turned out to be baseless, when they were on his program. We’d be in a whole different political-media environment. But no, Todd is only upset by publicity for revelations that may hurt the Democratic president, not the Republican one. And he wonders why so many see him as more of a liberal political operative than any kind of respectable journalist.”
  4984.  
  4985. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  4986.  
  4987.  
  4988.  
  4989.  
  4990. ■ July 24: Liberal Media Scream: CBS pushes for Hunter Biden media cover-up
  4991.  
  4992. (Washington Examiner post)
  4993.  
  4994.  
  4995. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the latest example of how the networks are covering up the escalating Hunter Biden sex, gun, drugs, and taxes scandal.
  4996.  
  4997. Not only have most ignored the scandal going all the way back to dissing reports on the first son’s laptop full of dirty deeds, but now some in the media are urging the GOP to “move on.”
  4998.  
  4999. Exhibit A is CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, who this weekend said the plea deal Hunter Biden has cut should be the trigger for Republicans to end their investigation into the president’s son.
  5000.  
  5001. Her guest, former federal prosecutor and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, dismissed her question. “No, I wouldn’t, Margaret, and here’s why. The conduct here by the U.S. attorney in Delaware and by the Justice Department just can’t be justified,” he said.
  5002.  
  5003. She also rolled out the standard Democratic talking point to make her case: “You know that the U.S. attorney in Delaware was appointed by former President Trump.” It’s typical for senators to suggest prosecutors in their state and U.S. Attorney David Weiss was endorsed by Delaware’s two Democratic senators at the time.
  5004.  
  5005. From Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS:
  5006.  
  5007. MARGARET BRENNAN: There are so many legal issues in this campaign, and I want to ask you about one involving the president’s son Hunter Biden who’s going to appear in court this week to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and will enter into an agreement that could avert conviction on a gun-related charge. The deal has infuriated many congressional Republicans, who were holding their own hearings, and I wonder after this plea happens if you would advise your party to move on?
  5008.  
  5009. CHRIS CHRISTIE: No, I wouldn’t, Margaret, and here’s why. The conduct here by the U.S. attorney in Delaware and by the Justice Department just can’t be justified. It doesn’t take five years, Margaret. As you mentioned, I was the U.S. attorney in the fifth-largest office in the country for seven years during the Bush administration. It does not take five years to investigate two misdemeanor tax counts and to dismiss a gun charge, and we need to know what they were investigating and why these are the charges they concluded to. This is not just any person. This is the son of the president of the United States. And while justice needs to be equal, it needs to be equal, and it doesn’t appear to me that this is the way to do it. And I would say one thing on the gun charge. I mean, this is a case where Democrats yell and scream for more new gun laws in the country, and yet you hear no Democrat yelling about the fact that Hunter Biden intentionally lied on his gun permit application, mishandled the gun after he received it with a false permit application, and faces absolutely no penalty. Guess what? The guy who sponsored that law was his father, Sen. Joe Biden, and that charge carries a 10-year sentence, Margaret. We need to explain — they need to explain to the public why that was done.
  5010.  
  5011. So no, I don't think it’s time to move on.
  5012.  
  5013. BRENNAN: And you know that the U.S. attorney in Delaware was appointed by former President Trump.
  5014.  
  5015. CHRISTIE: Incompetent, Margaret. It doesn’t matter, Margaret. It doesn’t matter whether you’re appointed by a Republican or a Democrat, if your work appears to be incompetent and inexplicable, you need to explain it so we can have confidence in our justice system, and I don’t care whether Mr. Weiss is a Republican or a Democrat. He owes the American people an explanation.
  5016.  
  5017.  
  5018.  
  5019.  
  5020.  
  5021. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “It takes a lot of chutzpah for Brennan to suggest Republicans ‘move on’ from a topic the broadcast news networks and much of the rest of the news media have done all they can to avoid in their quest to protect President Biden. Numerous revelations about Hunter and his dad have gone unreported, or get one story on one night, and then nothing more. What kind of ‘journalist’ pushes for cover-up and suppression over pressing for more coverage three days after two IRS whistleblowers detailed federal efforts to benefit Hunter and not pursue leads which could hurt the president?”
  5022.  
  5023. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5024.  
  5025.  
  5026.  
  5027.  
  5028. ■ July 17: No Liberal Media Scream this week
  5029.  
  5030.  
  5031.  
  5032. ■ July 10: Liberal Media Scream: CNN’s Zakaria tells Biden, 'You've been a great president'
  5033.  
  5034. (Washington Examiner post)
  5035.  
  5036.  
  5037. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a rare one-on-one interview of President Joe Biden and a hint of what it takes to get a sit-down with him.
  5038.  
  5039. In the case of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the payback came in a phrase of praise: “You've been a great president.”
  5040.  
  5041. The line was part of a long setup on his Sunday show to a question about some Democrats calling for Biden to step aside.
  5042.  
  5043. From Fareed Zakaria GPS:
  5044.  
  5045. Zakaria to Biden: “You've often said when people ask you about your age, just watch me. And I think a lot of people do watch you and are impressed, and they think you've been a great president. You've brought the economy back. You've restored relations with the world. But many of these people do say, and these are hardened supporters of yours, the next thing he should do is step aside and let another generation of Democrats take the baton.”
  5046.  
  5047.  
  5048.  
  5049.  
  5050.  
  5051. Kevin Tober, a news analyst &amp; staff writer at the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters, explains our weekly pick: “Zakaria displayed a masterclass in professional gaslighting Sunday when he told Biden that ‘a lot of people’ watch him and are ‘impressed.’ In reality, even many Democrats have expressed their concern about Biden's age and cognitive decline. Kissing Biden's ring is not ‘facts first’ despite what CNN wants you to think.”
  5052.  
  5053. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5054.  
  5055.  
  5056.  
  5057.  
  5058. ■ July 3: No Liberal Media Scream this week
  5059.  
  5060.  
  5061.  
  5062. ■ June 26: Liberal Media Scream: MSNBC historian declares GOP hopefuls insurrectionists
  5063.  
  5064. (Washington Examiner post)
  5065.  
  5066.  
  5067. This week’s Liberal Media Scream highlights the latest example of the conventional liberal media’s view that all Republicans are deplorable and, thus, dismissible.
  5068.  
  5069. MSNBC “historian” Jon Meacham, an author and former Newsweek Washington bureau chief, wrote off the large and historically diverse collection of Republican presidential candidates as insurrectionists and seditionists because all have been supportive at times of former President Donald Trump.
  5070.  
  5071. “We have a pretty clear choice in this political season. We can choose a constitutionalist, a party that has been pretty faithful to the Constitution, which is the party of the incumbent president, or we can favor a party that has been shockingly but persistently supportive of an insurrectionist or a seditionist,” he said on Friday’s Morning Joe show.
  5072.  
  5073. “It’s not simple, but it is straightforward. That’s the choice before the country,” said Meacham, who punctuated his analysis with declarations of “right?!”
  5074.  
  5075. From Friday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC:
  5076.  
  5077. JOE SCARBOROUGH: We were talking about the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court who, again, out of control, running roughshod over the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans. And now, we have this president, again, unprecedented, but here we are moving towards, I believe, I think, the most serious charges and the one that I think historians are going to be grappling with long after we are all gone. That is a president charged with conspiracy to commit sedition against the United States of America.
  5078.  
  5079. JON MEACHAM: You’re right, historians will be wrestling with it as we all do all the time. I think citizens have to wrestle with it now, right? This is, it’s so central, and I just really believe that we have a pretty clear choice in this political season. We can choose a constitutionalist, a party that has been pretty faithful to the Constitution, which is the party of the incumbent president, or we can favor a party that has been shockingly but persistently supportive of an insurrectionist or a seditionist.
  5080.  
  5081. That’s not a sentence we would have said about Eisenhower and Stevenson, right? That was not something that a lot of people grew up with. But it’s pretty vital. And yet that's the question: Is any policy so important that you would want to favor someone that you think is a vehicle for that policy, even if they don’t and have self-evidently tried to trash the Constitution of the United States? And we could go on, but that’s really kind of it. You know, it’s pretty basic. Do you want a constitutionalist or an insurrectionist?
  5082.  
  5083. Then we get into the, ‘But, but, but, taxes and judges.’ If we don’t have a Constitution, taxes and judges aren’t going to matter at all. That’s where we are, remarkably, right now. Again, we could go on, but I think it’s a fundamental question. People often say, you know, it’s simple. It’s not simple, but it is straightforward. That’s the choice before the country.
  5084.  
  5085.  
  5086.  
  5087.  
  5088.  
  5089. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Meacham, in all his haughty glory, sees it as his role to declare every candidate in one party illegitimate presidential contenders because most of them refrain from denouncing the one candidate he really hates. Yet Meacham and Scarborough wonder why conservatives don’t heed their advice when they show such disdain for the choices made by those who don’t share their left-wing worldview.”
  5090.  
  5091. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5092.  
  5093.  
  5094.  
  5095.  
  5096. ■ June 19: Liberal Media Scream: CNN begs ‘older’ white people to step aside, give values up
  5097.  
  5098. (Washington Examiner post)
  5099.  
  5100.  
  5101. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features one of CNN’s liberal big shots decrying “older” white people in Southern states for trying to maintain values and traditions instead of giving up to the “new demography.”
  5102.  
  5103. Ron Brownstein, a CNN political analyst and Atlantic editor, argued it is longtime residents who are trying to impose their values in states such as Texas, not the other way around.
  5104.  
  5105. The discussion came Monday when CNN This Morning devoted a segment to how those in red states are “imposing” their values on the rest of the nation.
  5106.  
  5107. Not considered by the panel: how those in red states see themselves as simply pushing back at the imposition of left-wing LGBT Pride values that CNN euphemistically described as “inclusion.”
  5108.  
  5109. From CNN This Morning:
  5110.  
  5111. RON BROWNSTEIN: The attempt to kind of impose the values, and to force companies to toe the line of the values of one segment of society, really puts them in a hard place and, ultimately, they have to decide whether they’re going to embrace this changing, inclusive America, or whether they’re going to back down in the face of this kind of pressure.
  5112.  
  5113. CO-HOST ERICA HILL: This is going to feel like a rhetorical question, but I mean it very seriously, as from both a political and a business standpoint, as you’re looking at this, right, inclusion is good for business. How and where is exclusion good for business or for politics when you’re narrowing your pool?
  5114.  
  5115. BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, it’s very different between the red states and the blue and purple states. In the red states, you have Republican coalitions that are running state government with an electoral coalition that is fundamentally rooted in the parts of the state that are not changing, that are basically nonurban, older white voters. And they are using that to impose the values of that coalition on changing places before the new demography maybe changes the political balance in a place like Texas. So you see half the country moving in this direction. And these boycotts are kind of the business flank of that same effort that in many ways is attempting to reverse what has been six decades of nationalizing more rights and creating common rights that are available in every state.
  5116.  
  5117. I mean, we are moving back toward a pre-1960s world where your basic civil liberties depended much more on your ZIP code. And I think, look, that in some places, like the period before the Civil War, no institution was equally credible on both sides of the sectional divide. And these companies, much as they want to stay out of it, ultimately have to decide: Are they going to embrace the changing America, or are they going to embrace this effort to, in effect, “Make America Great Again” by going back to older rules and older values?
  5118.  
  5119.  
  5120.  
  5121.  
  5122.  
  5123. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “In being so concerned about conservatives ‘imposing’ their values on blue America, Brownstein is oblivious to how red-state America sees itself just pushing back against the Left’s values being pushed on them. But to Brownstein and CNN, the liberal blue America world is all that matters.”
  5124.  
  5125. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5126.  
  5127.  
  5128.  
  5129.  
  5130. ■ June 12: Liberal Media Scream: New host Charles Barkley calls CNN ‘the Titanic’
  5131.  
  5132. (Washington Examiner post)
  5133.  
  5134.  
  5135. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features something we don’t hear often — a CNN host who admits the cable network is in serious trouble.
  5136.  
  5137. In this case, it is an incoming host and former NBA great Charles Barkley who is teaming up with CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King for a CNN prime-time show.
  5138.  
  5139. The show was mapped out by fired CNN chief Chris Licht, who said at the time that the show would begin in the fall.
  5140.  
  5141. Barkley is apparently a bit concerned about what he’s getting into. Talking hockey with NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, Barkley said, “Apparently, with this new talk show, I’m jumping on the Titanic.”
  5142.  
  5143. From the Saturday night NHL on TNT pregame Face Off show:
  5144.  
  5145. WAYNE GRETZKY: You don’t need to go take that news job. You can come on our show. You know more about hockey than we do. You don’t have to travel out of Atlanta.
  5146.  
  5147. CHARLES BARKLEY: Apparently, with this new talk show, I’m jumping on the Titanic. So it’s not — everybody keeps saying “abort,” “abort,” “abort!” So, you know what, I’m looking forward to it. Gayle is awesome.
  5148.  
  5149.  
  5150.  
  5151.  
  5152.  
  5153. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “The truth stumbles out spontaneously in the oddest of places. Barkley didn’t see that comment coming from Gretzky, so he blurted out the first thing he thought, which is the truth about the decline of CNN, before recovering with the more acceptable public stance of looking forward to the show. One suspects he’s having some second thoughts about agreeing to join CNN programming.”
  5154.  
  5155. Rating for telling the truth: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5156.  
  5157.  
  5158.  
  5159.  
  5160. ■ June 5: Liberal Media Scream: Chuck Todd says he’s a ‘real political journalist’
  5161.  
  5162. (Washington Examiner post)
  5163.  
  5164.  
  5165. This week’s Liberal Media Scream turns the spotlight to NBC’s Chuck Todd, who portrayed himself as a journalistic martyr in announcing that he will step down as host of Meet the Press later this year.
  5166.  
  5167. “Being a real political journalist isn’t about building a brand. It's about reporting what’s happening and explaining why it’s happening and letting the public absorb the facts,” he bragged Sunday.
  5168.  
  5169. “I take the attacks from partisans as compliments, and I take the compliments from partisans with a grain of salt,” said Todd, a favorite target of the Secrets' weekly Liberal Media Scream.
  5170.  
  5171. NBC said that Kristen Welker, NBC News's co-chief White House correspondent, will succeed him in what is a well-worn path to hosting Sunday public affairs shows.
  5172.  
  5173. Todd, on Sunday’s Meet the Press:
  5174.  
  5175. “I’ll be honest, though. I leave feeling concerned about this moment in history but reassured by the standards we've set here. We didn’t tolerate propagandists, and this network and program never will. But it doesn't mean sticking your head in the sand either. If you ignore reality, you’ll miss the big story. Being a real political journalist isn’t about building a brand. It's about reporting what’s happening and explaining why it’s happening and letting the public absorb the facts. If you do this job seeking popularity, you are doing this job incorrectly.
  5176.  
  5177. “I take the attacks from partisans as compliments, and I take the compliments from partisans with a grain of salt. The goal of this and every Meet the Press episode is to do all of the following in one informative hour: Make you mad, make you think, shake your head in disapproval, and nod your head in approval. If you do all of that in one hour of this show, we’ve done our jobs. So, again, this isn’t goodbye. But know this: No matter who sits in this chair, if it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.”
  5178.  
  5179.  
  5180.  
  5181.  
  5182.  
  5183. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Arrogant until the end. No acknowledgment from Todd that he just might be biased in favor of the Left and against conservatives. Instead, he played the martyr card, portraying himself as the target of misguided criticism which only proves his integrity.”
  5184.  
  5185. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5186.  
  5187.  
  5188.  
  5189.  
  5190. May 29: No Liberal Media Scream this week.
  5191.  
  5192.  
  5193.  
  5194. May 22: Liberal Media Scream: NBC’s Chuck Todd says only tax cheats oppose more IRS agents
  5195.  
  5196. (Washington Examiner post)
  5197.  
  5198.  
  5199. This week’s Liberal Media Scream shows exactly the difference between small-government conservatives and big-government liberals.
  5200.  
  5201. Imagine wanting 87,000 more Internal Revenue Service agents. Well, that’s not only what NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd said, but he sneered at those who don’t want them as likely tax cheats.
  5202.  
  5203. On his Sunday show, he took on the GOP plan to roll back the Biden administration’s request and said, “I have never understood the resistance of extra IRA agents — unless you knowingly cheat on your taxes.” His guest, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), replied, “That’s salacious and you know that.”
  5204.  
  5205. Donalds said that “when you have that many more agents, it’s not to go after the rich. It’s to go after the middle class.” Todd stood by his view that the honest have nothing to fear from more enforcement. “So if you’re paying what you are supposed to pay, then you should have nothing to fear,” he said.
  5206.  
  5207. The exchange on Sunday’s Meet the Press:
  5208.  
  5209. CHUCK TODD: But there’s one more thing House Republicans are asking for, which is they want fewer IRS agents. They want fewer attempts to try to properly get tax receipts into the federal government’s coffers. I have never understood the resistance of extra IRS agents — unless you knowingly cheat on your taxes.
  5210.  
  5211. REP. BYRON DONALDS: First of all, that’s salacious and you know that. Most Americans, by far, pay their taxes, and they do it honorably. What House Republicans, and frankly the Republican Party, is concerned about is having IRS agents go after middle-class families and small business owners. When you have that many more agents, it’s not to go after the rich. It’s to go after the middle class. That’s what it's for.
  5212.  
  5213. TODD: So if you’re paying what you are supposed to pay, then you should have nothing to fear.
  5214.  
  5215. DONALDS: You would make the assumption that IRS audits are up, that they’re putting out more liens on the American people. That’s not true. That data is not there. All Joe Biden is trying to do is find every possible nickel out of every couch from every American to pay for his radical spending. Why would we do that?
  5216.  
  5217.  
  5218.  
  5219.  
  5220.  
  5221. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “How ridiculous. More people in any job that involves tracking the activities of others means at least some of those in their purview will get harassed. After all, the additional staff has to justify their existence. By Todd’s logic, minority communities have nothing to fear from dozens more police officers on patrol since only criminals have any reason to ‘fear’ more cops. But that’s not the view of Black Lives Matter activists. Yet, Todd and the media would never take on that premise.”
  5222.  
  5223. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5224.  
  5225.  
  5226.  
  5227.  
  5228. May 15: No Liberal Media Scream this week.
  5229.  
  5230.  
  5231.  
  5232. ■ May 8: Liberal Media Scream: Even if Trump loses, Washington Post editor sees America’s ‘dissolution’
  5233.  
  5234. (Washington Examiner post)
  5235.  
  5236.  
  5237. This week’s Liberal Media Scream demonstrates that anti-Trumpers have jumped off the deep end eight months before the first primary and caucus vote is cast in the 2024 race.
  5238.  
  5239. We feature Washington Post columnist and editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who has long criticized former President Donald Trump, once dubbing him a “Frankenstein monster.”
  5240.  
  5241. In his latest expression of "Trump derangement syndrome," he talked about Trump running again and how it will ruin the nation. But in this case, Trump doesn’t win but loses and claims fraud.
  5242.  
  5243. The result: America ends. “At that point, I think we face a very serious possibility of dissolution of the United States and secession,” the neoconservative Never Trumper said on the First Look podcast hosted by the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart.
  5244.  
  5245. It even seemed too much for the host, who called Kagan’s take “a pretty apocalyptic view, and I’m laughing to keep from crying.”
  5246.  
  5247. From Friday’s First Look on Washington Post Live:
  5248.  
  5249. ROBERT KAGAN: If you look ahead a year, I think it’s very hard. I really don’t think most Americans — even attentive Americans — have really focused on the fact that a year from now, Donald Trump is going to be the strongest person in the country in some respects. Certainly, he’s going to dominate the Republican Party. At that point, he will be accumulating votes, which in this country is the ultimate certification of legitimacy. And so I think he’s going to be in an incredibly powerful position.
  5250.  
  5251. He’s going to make it clear to his supporters that if he loses, it can only be as a result of fraud. And therefore, I think the entire Republican Party is going to, if Trump loses, say that the election was fraudulent. And at that point, I think we face a very serious possibility of dissolution of the United States and secession. I know that that sounds extreme, but secession has been pretty common, what used to be a very common activity or at least, you know, in the first hundred years of our republic, and our country hasn’t changed that much. So, I think that’s what we’re looking at in the 2024 scenario right now.
  5252.  
  5253. JONATHAN CAPEHART: Danielle [Allen], do you share? I mean, that’s a pretty apocalyptic view, and I’m laughing to keep from crying, Bob, but—
  5254.  
  5255. KAGAN: For the first thing in the morning.
  5256.  
  5257.  
  5258.  
  5259.  
  5260.  
  5261. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “The ultimate in 'Trump derangement syndrome' scaremongering. It’s not good enough for former President Donald Trump to lose. Per Kagan, even if Trump loses, we’ll get an apocalyptic outcome. So, the only way for the U.S. to survive as a nation is for Trump to not even run. For someone who sees Trump as a destroyer of democracy, Kagan isn’t very confident in the strength of our democratic institutions.”
  5262.  
  5263. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5264.  
  5265.  
  5266.  
  5267.  
  5268. ■ May 1: Liberal Media Scream: Todd cues up Mayorkas to tout Biden as ‘incredibly sharp’
  5269.  
  5270. (Washington Examiner post)
  5271.  
  5272.  
  5273. This week’s Liberal Media Scream shows how the Washington political/media machine works when it comes to a matter both sides just don’t want to address fully, such as reports President Joe Biden doesn’t have the mental capacity or stamina to run for reelection or serve out a second term.
  5274.  
  5275. On Sunday’s Meet the Press, moderator Chuck Todd cued up Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to champion Biden as fully fit for reelection. Todd: “Is he up for a second term?” Mayorkas: “100%. Incredibly sharp, incredibly probing, incredible command of the details, probing on the details.”
  5276.  
  5277. Todd’s follow-up: “You have full confidence he can serve a second term?” Mayorkas repeated his 100% line, and then Todd wrapped up the segment without ever challenging the upbeat assurances from Mayorkas.
  5278.  
  5279. From Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  5280.  
  5281.  
  5282.  
  5283.  
  5284.  
  5285. CHUCK TODD: You’re in Cabinet meetings. There’s a lot of questions about President Biden and his ability to serve in a second term. You see him up close, face-to-face. What say you? Is he up, is he up for a second term?
  5286.  
  5287. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Oh, Chuck, 100%. Incredibly sharp, incredibly probing, incredible command of the details, probing on the details, asking tough questions. Absolutely. I’m incredibly proud to serve in his administration. I am incredibly proud of the work that we have done across the board —
  5288.  
  5289. TODD: You have full confidence he can serve a second term?
  5290.  
  5291. MAYORKAS: 100%.
  5292.  
  5293. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “It’s the obtuse leading the blind. Everyone knows Joe Biden is as ‘incredibly smart’ as the border is secure, as Mayorkas has repeatedly assured. All but a few Biden sycophants know neither is true, yet Todd let Mayorkas get away with the laugh line.”
  5294.  
  5295. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5296.  
  5297.  
  5298.  
  5299.  
  5300. ■ April 24: Liberal Media Scream: Government-funded PBS has Biden scandal, gaffe-free
  5301.  
  5302. (Washington Examiner post)
  5303.  
  5304.  
  5305. If ever there was an example that Twitter had it right when the social media giant slapped “government-funded” and “state-affiliated” on PBS and NPR, consider our Mainstream Media Scream example this week featuring politically delusional contributors David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart.
  5306.  
  5307. Imagine a conservative calling President Joe Biden a strong speaker who is gaffe- and scandal-free, ignoring his refusal to meet with the media, his weekly mistaken mumbles, and the investigations into the family finances or the historic crisis on the border.
  5308.  
  5309. Well, roll the tape from the Friday PBS NewsHour. There you will see Brooks cheering Biden’s reelection plans and saying that the president “gave a strong State of the Union,” and adding that “there hasn’t been any obvious gaffes, big scandals or anything like that.”
  5310.  
  5311. From Friday’s PBS NewsHour:
  5312.  
  5313. GEOFF BENNETT, ANCHOR: President Biden’s allies say the fact that he’s facing only token primary opposition from author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. really is a show of strength for him.
  5314.  
  5315. DAVID BROOKS: Oh, for sure. I mean, there’s — in the polling, there’s still a lot of Democrats who think he should not run, but that’s mostly an age issue, not an ideology issue. But the midterm election sort of silenced all that. And he’s been looking strong. He gave a strong State of the Union. There hasn’t been any obvious gaffes, big scandals or anything like that.
  5316.  
  5317. And so there’s nothing — or, even ideologically, I’d say, over the two years so far, two and a bit, that he’s pretty well massaged the center-left fights that happen in the Democratic Party by doing things that some people, the centrists like, and some things that people on the Left like.
  5318.  
  5319. And so there’s no natural home for an opposition candidate, and everyone’s united by Donald Trump. And so, you know, I think what’s interesting about him, he’s been sounding pretty candidate-y for six months now. He’s been talking like, 'I really want to go after Trump.' And he’s been doing it.
  5320.  
  5321. You know, I think what has to concern the White House a little is they’ve had improving inflation, a lot of good domestic policy achievements, Republicans have staked out some pretty extreme ground on a lot of issues. And if you look at the polls, it’s still reasonably close. His approvals are still in 46s.
  5322.  
  5323. And it could be that we’re just in an extremely partisan, divided country, an extremely cynical country, where, on the national level, nobody — and this is global — no national leader gets popular anymore. No national leader gets to 55, because there’s so much cynicism across the Western world.
  5324.  
  5325.  
  5326.  
  5327.  
  5328.  
  5329. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “How surreal to visit the world of PBS News, where Joe Biden is ‘strong,’ has had ‘a lot of good domestic policy achievements’ and hasn’t had any ‘obvious gaffes’ or scandals. Biden is a ‘gaffe’ machine! As for scandals, hello Hunter Biden and Chinese money going to the Biden family, to say nothing of the ongoing scandal of the out-of-control border. Just because PBS ignores Biden’s confusion and malfeasance doesn’t mean he’s good at his job. But to PBS, this is analysis from the ‘conservative’ house analyst. No wonder conservative taxpayers are so annoyed about having to fund PBS.”
  5330.  
  5331. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5332.  
  5333.  
  5334.  
  5335.  
  5336. ■ April 17: Liberal Media Scream: ABC pundit says Republicans are the bossy ones
  5337.  
  5338. (Washington Examiner post)
  5339.  
  5340.  
  5341. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features an ABC News pundit ripping Republicans for pushing people around.
  5342.  
  5343. Jane Coaston, once with the New York Times, cited abortion in claiming Republicans are America’s busybodies, ignoring how the Democrats are engaged in a wide-ranging effort to force the country to accept electric cars, gas stoves, and kiddie transgender operations.
  5344.  
  5345. “I think the most important political priority for any political party is to not be the people telling people what to do,” she said.
  5346.  
  5347. Thankfully, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was sitting next to her on ABC’s This Week. He countered, “Democrats are going to have a hard time making that case when you look at public education and what their position is, which is, us and the teachers’ unions know what to tell your children and where they should go to school and how they should be taught.”
  5348.  
  5349. From the roundtable on Sunday’s This Week on ABC:
  5350.  
  5351. JANE COASTON: I think the most important political priority for any political party is to not be the people telling people what to do. For the last five years, we’ve heard from Republicans, especially even during COVID, about how freedom was going to reign and that they were just going to let people make decisions for themselves. They want to be the cool mom of politics. Well, that era has ended.
  5352.  
  5353. And I think that there’s a specific type of libertarianism that is very popular in America. Unlike the Libertarian Party. But there’s a specific type of, don’t tell me what to do, let me make my decisions. Let me make my decisions for my family, that is very politically profitable. And I think that if Democrats are able to say that we are the party that says you can make these decisions, you can make decisions for your family, your family can make decisions for themselves, I think that that will be politically profitable. And I think that for Republicans, it’s going to be challenging to try to sound simultaneously like cool mom and the Moral Majority that so many of us grew up with.
  5354.  
  5355. CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well, the Democratic Party is all for that on abortion, but they are against it when it comes to public education. When it comes to public education, people shouldn’t be able to make their own decisions, you shouldn't be able to have the ability to have your child go to parochial school if you can’t afford it, or to go to a charter school if they’re not available in your town. Or to be able to decide what your children should be able to learn about sexuality and at what age they should learn that. So the Democrats are going to have a hard time making that case when you look at public education and what their position is, which is us and the teachers’ unions know what to tell your children and where they should go to school and how they should be taught.
  5356.  
  5357.  
  5358.  
  5359.  
  5360.  
  5361. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “What a total lack of self-awareness. If you really think ‘the most important political priority for any political party is to not be the people telling people what to do,’ how can you be a Democrat, as Coaston obviously is, since telling people what to do is the fundamental passion of modern Democrats on everything from the kind of car you can drive to the type of stove you can put in your kitchen? As the famous line goes, where Democrats can be substituted for liberals, liberals don’t care what you do as long as it’s mandatory.’”
  5362.  
  5363. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5364.  
  5365.  
  5366.  
  5367.  
  5368. ■ April 10: Liberal Media Scream: Liberals can’t handle the truth
  5369.  
  5370. (Washington Examiner post)
  5371.  
  5372.  
  5373. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the news industry’s knee-jerk reaction to the expulsion of two Tennessee Democrats from the legislature for violating floor rules in aggressively demanding gun control.
  5374.  
  5375. MSNBC political pundit Jon Meacham gets our spotlight for his rambling tie-in of abortion, gender, guns, and, of course, former President Donald Trump to the ouster of state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson last week.
  5376.  
  5377. “These things are connected,” Meacham said in dismissing Republicans and blaming Trump in the latest example of the media’s Trump derangement syndrome. “It’s a reminder that what Trump has represented, which is this showmanship, this, ‘We’re going to own the libs,’ is actually of enormous real-world consequence, right? His reality show, which is about his attention and his fundraising and his ego and his narcissism, has an impact on how people live and how the vulnerable live.”
  5378.  
  5379. Our curator, Media Research Center’s Vice President Brent Baker, gave a rare five out of five “scream” rating and said the meandering performance showed that liberals can’t handle the truth.
  5380.  
  5381. “The Republicans in control of the Tennessee legislature were following the very rules of the state constitution in expelling the two Democrats, the kind of orderly process Meacham advocated but can’t accept when it reminds him of Trump-like wrath,” Baker said in his analysis.
  5382.  
  5383. Meacham on Monday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC:
  5384.  
  5385. I can’t help, just because of where I’m sitting in Nashville, to bring this up as well. You know, 14 days ago, the children, the teachers, the adults who were murdered at the Covenant School were getting ready for school at this hour. And I bring it up because there are — there’s the issue of reproductive health, there’s the issue of a wildly and, if I may, weirdly expansive view of the Second Amendment, there’s an anti-democratic, lowercase “D” movement because we have a supermajority here. Because Republicans can expel two members, they did.
  5386.  
  5387. And these things are connected. It’s a reminder — and imagine a world where we haven’t even mentioned the indictment of a former president and the potential indictments coming — it’s a reminder that what Trump has represented, which is this showmanship, this, “We’re going to own the libs,” is actually of enormous real-world consequence, right? His reality show, which is about his attention and his fundraising and his ego and his narcissism, has an impact on how people live and how the vulnerable live. And people who are vulnerable who don’t even know they’re vulnerable because they’re 9 years old and they’re going to school. And so, the right wing — and, Joe, you alluded to it, you grew up around this, you were elected — the right wing needs to be a fully functioning part of a two-party constitutional system. And they can believe what they want to believe about reproduction and about guns, and that’s all what they’re supposed to do. Then you take it to the people. And when you take it to the people, you then obey the result because that’s what we do. That’s what separates us from chaos.
  5388.  
  5389. Think about what the Right is doing here. They’re doing two things: They’re pushing, arguably, too far on these important issues, and then if they get a result they don’t like, they storm a capital, or they throw people out of a legislature. Seems to me you can have the first, but you can’t have the second, and if you insist on having both, then you are not part of this conversation, and we need a conversation that has people of good faith, whether you agree with them or not. These are difficult issues, right? I mean, the definition of life and the Roe system. This isn’t easy.
  5390.  
  5391. There are people of enormous goodwill, enormous goodwill, who differ from lots of folks that we’re talking to and about. But you take it to the system, you take it to the Constitution, and if there’s a decision, you respect it, and if the decision goes the other way, you work within channels. You don’t throw people out of legislative bodies.
  5392.  
  5393.  
  5394.  
  5395.  
  5396.  
  5397. Baker explains our weekly pick: “A classic example of Trump derangement syndrome, though this time in a droll and low-key manner, yet still an instance of how liberals in the media see everything through a Trump prism. The Republicans in control of the Tennessee legislature were following the very rules of the state constitution in expelling the two Democrats, the kind of orderly process Meacham advocated but can’t accept when it reminds him of Trump-like wrath.”
  5398.  
  5399. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5400.  
  5401.  
  5402.  
  5403.  
  5404. ■ April 3: Liberal Media Scream: 60 Minutes’ hate list against Marjorie Taylor Greene
  5405.  
  5406. (Washington Examiner post)
  5407.  
  5408.  
  5409. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the acid 60 Minutes interview of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene by Lesley Stahl.
  5410.  
  5411. In it, the Georgia Republican pushed back hard against Stahl’s trolling interview that included a hater’s list of nasty comments thrown at the lawmaker ever since she first ran for the North Georgia House seat.
  5412.  
  5413. For her reporting project, Stahl went on social media to “look up” some of the comments. She read them to Greene, who shrugged, “Looks like the average troll in my Twitter feed, so I don’t really care.”
  5414.  
  5415. There was no mention in the televised story of the times Greene has been swatted in several cases where she was worried about becoming a so-called “death by police” victim.
  5416.  
  5417. Stahl also couldn’t resist the standard liberal media mantra on the necessity of raising taxes.
  5418.  
  5419. On the debt ceiling, Stahl asked, “Would you be willing to vote for compromise? In other words, raise some taxes?” Greene replied: “I don’t think we have a revenue problem in Washington. We have a spending problem.” Stahl sneered, “That’s glib. That’s glib.”
  5420.  
  5421. From Sunday’s 60 Minutes on CBS:
  5422.  
  5423. LESLEY STAHL: We looked up some words that have been said about you.
  5424.  
  5425. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: OK.
  5426.  
  5427. STAHL: “Crazy,” “Q-clown,” “Looney Tune,” “unhinged,” “moron.” Pretty ugly stuff.
  5428.  
  5429. GREENE: Looks like the average troll in my Twitter feed, so I don’t really care.
  5430.  
  5431. STAHL: You’re used to it?
  5432.  
  5433. GREENE: I don’t let name-calling bother me or offend me. I just don’t.
  5434.  
  5435. .....
  5436.  
  5437. STAHL: Would you be willing to vote for compromise? In other words, raise some taxes?
  5438.  
  5439. GREENE: I don’t think we have a revenue problem in Washington. We have a spending problem.
  5440.  
  5441. STAHL: You know something? That’s glib. That’s glib. That, what does that mean? The two sides have to come together and hammer it out.
  5442.  
  5443. GREENE: Cut spending.
  5444.  
  5445. STAHL: Both sides.
  5446.  
  5447. GREENE: Both sides need to cut spending.
  5448.  
  5449. STAHL: Where do you want to cut it?
  5450.  
  5451. GREENE: COVID bailout money and a lot of  green energy spending.
  5452.  
  5453. STAHL: But are you willing to let us go into default?
  5454.  
  5455. GREENE: No. I’ve always said I wouldn’t do that.
  5456.  
  5457. STAHL: So, would you compromise?
  5458.  
  5459. GREENE: It depends.
  5460.  
  5461. STAHL: On taxes? You won’t.
  5462.  
  5463. GREENE: No, I’m not raising taxes.
  5464.  
  5465.  
  5466.  
  5467.  
  5468.  
  5469. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “The 60 Minutes story was unremarkable in many ways as Stahl painted, as you’d expect from the establishment media, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a crazy far-right extremist. But Stahl showed how she and CBS News consider the congresswoman first and foremost to be an impediment to their consistent demand that taxes must be raised. In that respect, to CBS she’s just as awful as any conservative who prefers cutting spending to raising taxes.”
  5470.  
  5471. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5472.  
  5473.  
  5474.  
  5475.  
  5476. ■ March 27: Liberal Media Scream: Jon Stewart says America all talk on ending discrimination
  5477.  
  5478. (Washington Examiner post)
  5479.  
  5480.  
  5481. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features liberal activist Jon Stewart claiming that efforts in America to embrace the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement are just an inch deep, a “salve” to make people feel good.
  5482.  
  5483. On CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, the former host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central lumped critical race theory in with DEI and said that despite all the hand-wringing by many to change society’s views on discrimination, it’s mostly just talk.
  5484.  
  5485. He pointed to the National Football League as an example. The NFL has the so-called Rooney Rule, which requests that teams interview minorities when a top job comes open, nothing more.
  5486.  
  5487. “So here’s what we are going to do,” Stewart said. “We’re going to have to talk to one black guy. ‘Are we good? I think we’re good.’”
  5488.  
  5489. Jon Stewart on Sunday’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN:
  5490.  
  5491. By the way, all these diversity initiatives and CRT and all those other things are only there because we refuse to actually fix the real problem. The diversity and equity initiatives are a salve. They are to pacify and mollify because we won’t actually do the real thing. We won’t actually dismantle the vestiges of all the systemic racism and all the systemic classism and all the systemic gender issues. We won’t actually dismantle that.
  5492.  
  5493. But what we will do is you can have an office in the building. And every few months, we’re going to have to sit and listen to you talk for, like, an hour. “And so we’re good, right?” Like, it’s a country that won’t face — I’ll explain it like, OK, the NFL, right? You know the Rooney Rule? The Rooney Rule in the NFL is because there are so few African American coaches, you have to at least interview, like, one of them. So that’s the rule now, instead of it’s the thing you put in place instead of looking at the owner’s box, and realizing, oh, right, that’s just the legacy of the economic segregation that’s been in our country since its founding.
  5494.  
  5495. So we’re never going to deal with that. So here’s what we are going to do. A diversity and equity initiative, we’re going to have to talk to one black guy. “Are we good? I think we’re good.” But that’s what I’m, what I’m trying to say is we don’t — the thing that they’re pointing at is the thing that’s in place because we won’t do the actual thing.
  5496.  
  5497.  
  5498.  
  5499.  
  5500.  
  5501. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “To conservatives, DEI is undermining the American ideal of equal opportunity and replacing it with forced equal outcomes that exacerbate racial tensions. Stewart put himself clearly on the Left, contending DEI doesn’t go far enough but complaining it’s ‘in place because we won’t do the actual thing.’ Yet he never explains what that ‘actual thing’ would entail.”
  5502.  
  5503. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5504.  
  5505.  
  5506.  
  5507.  
  5508. ■ March 20: Liberal Media Scream: Joy Reid coddles reporter fired for hostility to DeSantis
  5509.  
  5510. (Washington Examiner post)
  5511.  
  5512.  
  5513. This week’s Liberal Media Scream turns to the case of an Axios reporter who was fired for describing as “propaganda” a news release dished out by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
  5514.  
  5515. Instead of backing Axios in her interview with the reporter, MSNBC’s liberal host Joy Reid blamed DeSantis and gave the reporter a chance to blast Axios and claim that the likely Republican presidential candidate bullied Axios into action.
  5516.  
  5517. Reid said, “There is a bullying aspect and a lot of trolling" of those who work for DeSantis.
  5518.  
  5519. The Tampa-based journalist Ben Montgomery said on Reid’s show, “I feel like what Axios did to me has a chilling effect on the entire news media.”
  5520.  
  5521. Here’s what happened, according to the New York Post:
  5522.  
  5523. “Journalist Ben Montgomery was fired from the news outlet [Axios] after a staffer in the state Department of Education tweeted out a screenshot of him telling the department’s press office over email, ‘This is propaganda, not a press release’ in reply to a release that highlighted the GOP governor hosting a roundtable on ‘Exposing the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Scam in Higher Education.’”
  5524.  
  5525. Oh, and of course, he's thinking of cashing in with a book.
  5526.  
  5527. From the March 16 episode of The ReidOut on MSNBC:
  5528.  
  5529. BEN MONTGOMERY: So we have the Florida Department of Education, that’s kind of engaged in, in my view, campaigning for DeSantis for 2024 presidential campaign. So what they are doing is weaponizing these emails that we sometimes send and trying to make us look like lefty activists when really we’re just interested in them serving the people and being true public service and doing the right kind of work that the taxpayers are paying them for.
  5530.  
  5531. JOY REID: There is a bullying aspect and a lot of trolling. They do a lot of Twitter trolling. They tried to bully my dear friend and colleague Andrea Mitchell for asking a question not even to DeSantis, to the vice president, Kamala Harris. Did you experience, before this, any kind of bullying behavior from the DeSantis camp?
  5532.  
  5533. BEN MONTGOMERY: Look, I mostly write about fluffy kind of things. I cover the news, of course. I’ve been an investigative reporter for a long time but not with this administration. By and large I have not had the opportunity to really do any kind of depth, in-depth reporting on a DeSantis administration. I’m not a person that they should be afraid of, I don’t think.
  5534.  
  5535. I’m not writing about them every day. I’m not digging deep, in other words. So yeah, but this was propaganda and it was a waste of my time. That’s ultimately what I was saying to them. It’s wasting my time and it’s done in a clear vein of propaganda. This is objectionably propaganda.
  5536.  
  5537. And I read the whole thing because I give them the benefit of the doubt because they work for the people of Florida. And I want to do right by my readers. And so when this wastes my time and it’s just propaganda, I feel like I have a right to say so. And I feel like what Axios did to me has a chilling effect on the entire news media. It’s a very sad thing.
  5538.  
  5539. REID: Oh, it 100% does! It does show that bullying works. And that sends a message to every other journalist. You put up a sort of fun tweet after this all happened saying that you made a quiche. What are your next plans?
  5540.  
  5541. MONTGOMERY: I was talking to my agent today about whether there was a book in this, and maybe there is. Maybe it’s time that somebody isn’t afraid to stand up to DeSantis, write a true biography of him. So I might be the guy to do that. We’ll see.
  5542.  
  5543. REID: Yeah, good luck, he has his military records, people have lots and lots of questions. Maybe you can pull it off. Ben Montgomery, thank you man. Really appreciate you being here, and best of luck in whatever you do next.
  5544.  
  5545.  
  5546.  
  5547.  
  5548.  
  5549. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Montgomery’s attitude betrayed as true what the DeSantis staff saw; he is, despite his denial, a ‘lefty activist,’ just one that a media outlet, in a rarity, held accountable. Reid, of course, saw it all through the prism of her hatred for all things DeSantis and thus treated him as the victim instead of as the one who violated the trust of his readers.”
  5550.  
  5551. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5552.  
  5553.  
  5554.  
  5555.  
  5556. ■ March 13: Liberal Media Scream: MSNBC wants baseball out of Florida over DeSantis
  5557.  
  5558. (Washington Examiner post)
  5559.  
  5560.  
  5561. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a new call from an MSNBC anchor for baseball to pull spring training out of Florida over some of the recent social policy moves by likely 2024 presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
  5562.  
  5563. Anchor Lindsey Reiser compared Florida under DeSantis to the days of Jim Crow as she featured Washington Post sports writer Kevin Blackistone, who had just published a column urging Major League Baseball to respond to “Ron DeSantis’s culture wars.”
  5564.  
  5565. She said: “You outlined Major League Baseball’s move out of Florida for spring training in yesteryear — late ‘40s, a state with some of the harshest Jim Crow laws as the league was introducing black players to the league.”
  5566.  
  5567. He responded that MLB has already shown a hand, moving the 2021 All-Star Game out of Georgia over voting reform laws that turned out to be a nonfactor in last year’s elections that saw record numbers of people at the polls.
  5568.  
  5569. Baseball, he said, “should express if it has some uncomfortableness with the things that are going on in the DeSantis campaign, in the way that he’s run the state of Florida, and in some of the other legislation that has been passed there that they should speak out.”
  5570.  
  5571. From MSNBC Reports in the 10 a.m. ET hour, on Friday:
  5572.  
  5573. LINDSEY REISER: Back in DeSantis’s home state, his fellow Republicans are pretty busy this week with lawmakers introducing three new bills that would expand on legislation that critics call the "Don’t Say Gay Law," another that would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, and a proposal to require bloggers who write about Florida politics to register with the state. This all comes just over a month after Gov. DeSantis's decision to block AP African American Studies from Florida schools, but as Florida sees all kinds of controversy over those proposals, it’s also in the middle of a spring tradition with 15 Major League Baseball teams currently holding spring training and the league and players facing growing calls to speak out against those bills.
  5574.  
  5575. Joining me right now, ESPN panelist and sports commentary writer for the Washington Post, Kevin Blackistone. He’s out with a new piece called “Baseball can no longer ignore Ron DeSantis’s culture wars.” Kevin, thanks for being with us. I want to talk to you about the piece. You outlined Major League Baseball’s move out of Florida for spring training in yesteryear — late ‘40s, a state with some of the harshest Jim Crow laws as the league was introducing black players to the league. In 1947, again, Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, his team moving spring training to Havana, Cuba. That same year, the Cleveland Indians, the New York Giants moved spring training to Tucson.
  5576.  
  5577. KEVIN BLACKISTONE: So baseball reacted, right, and they started to depart from, or certain teams did, from Florida. And that really began the tradition of the Cactus League in Arizona. So that is the through line to what is going on now. And baseball has in the very recent past, right, in 2021, they moved the All-Star Game out of the state of Georgia in protest to some of the election laws that a lot of people in the state of Georgia felt were burdensome on black voters in particular and other people of color and people who were marginalized in that state.
  5578.  
  5579. So I just think that, you know, baseball has spoken out on these issues before, and I think it should express if it has some uncomfortableness with the things that are going on in the DeSantis campaign, in the way that he’s run the state of Florida, and in some of the other legislation that has been passed there that they should speak out.
  5580.  
  5581. You know, we talked about — and I know this network has — about the review of books for youth in the public schools in the state of Florida and some of those that have not yet been allowed back on the shelves. One of those books happens to be a book about Jackie Robinson, so think about the irony of that. They also temporarily suspended the distribution of books about Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron, two of the great black stars of baseball.
  5582.  
  5583.  
  5584.  
  5585.  
  5586.  
  5587. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “What an incredibly insidious historic precedent to cite, the Democratic Party’s century of enforcing segregation, as a rationale now for punishing the people of Florida over a disagreement with policies pushed by the Republican DeSantis. Nothing DeSantis has ever advocated comes close to the kind of racist, inhumane policies Florida enforced in the 1940s.”
  5588.  
  5589. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5590.  
  5591.  
  5592.  
  5593.  
  5594. ■ March 6: Liberal Media Scream: Whoopi cheers erasing history she’s ‘not in tune with’
  5595.  
  5596. (Washington Examiner post)
  5597.  
  5598.  
  5599. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a feud on the Left about “woke” history rewriting between Bill Maher and Whoopi Goldberg.
  5600.  
  5601. The initial focus is Maher’s defense on CNN of former President Abraham Lincoln, who ended slavery, and an apparent reference to the Washington, D.C., Emancipation Memorial that featured what many believe is a thankful former slave at his feet.
  5602.  
  5603. “Abraham Lincoln was not a controversial figure among liberals. We liked him. Now they take his name off schools and tear down his statues. Really, Lincoln isn't good enough for you?” said Maher on CNN.
  5604.  
  5605. Enter Goldberg, a critic of the statue, who slammed the woke movement, claiming she and other black people have always been “woke” to undercurrents of racism.
  5606.  
  5607. “And this idea of woke, I'll say it again: Most of y'all were asleep,” she said on The View, drawing a look from co-host Joy Behar.
  5608.  
  5609. From ABC’s The View on Thursday:
  5610.  
  5611. WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Maher also had some criticism for the other side of the aisle, claiming the Left lost the definition of the term "woke." Huh? OK. Take a look.
  5612.  
  5613. BILL MAHER: Democrats sometimes can take it too far. You know, I would categorize liberal as different than woke. Woke, which started out as a good thing, alert to injustice — who could be against that? But it became sort of an eye roll because they love diversity except of ideas. Abraham Lincoln was not a controversial figure among liberals. We liked him. Now they take his name off schools and tear down his statues. Really, Lincoln isn’t good enough for you?
  5614.  
  5615. WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, that statue was not good enough. Because it showed a slave down at Lincoln’s feet. And if we’re tearing down statues that are really not in tune with where we are as a nation, or at least where we were a couple of months ago, yeah, you got to take it down. That’s why they removed stuff. That’s why people are moving stuff around. And this idea of woke, I’m going to say it again: Most of y’all were asleep.
  5616.  
  5617. JOY BEHAR: Who are you speaking to?
  5618.  
  5619. GOLDBERG: I’m talking to all those folks that use that word “woke” all the time. Y’all were asleep. We were never asleep. We had to stay awake watching you. So, you woke up and you thought, “Oh, my God, there’s lots of women running amok doing things they’re not supposed to be doing and drag queens everywhere and oh, my God, people of color!”
  5620.  
  5621. You know, you always talk about the snowflakes — look in the mirror. Y’all can’t seem to handle anything. You can’t seem to handle competition from Democrats to Republicans. You can’t seem to handle the discussions of why people feel the way they do. Your idea is to get rid of everything. So, stop calling us snowflakes.
  5622.  
  5623.  
  5624.  
  5625.  
  5626.  
  5627. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “One wonders if Goldberg will be so pleased when the calls come to take down statues of Martin Luther King and remove his name from roads and schools. After all, like her argument with Lincoln, ‘he’s really not in tune with where we are as a nation’ since, by 2023 standards, he was homophobic and transphobic.”
  5628.  
  5629. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5630.  
  5631.  
  5632.  
  5633.  
  5634. ■ February 27: Liberal Media Scream: Hollywood says banning filming plastic bottles will save the world
  5635.  
  5636. (Washington Examiner post)
  5637.  
  5638.  
  5639. This week’s Liberal Media Scream is going a little off beat to highlight a new Hollywood claim that movie studios and actors are saving the world and the environment with an honor system to ban plastic bottles “on camera.”
  5640.  
  5641. It came from Fran Drescher, the president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the star of The Nanny, a hit sitcom in the 1990s, as she addressed the SAG Awards show last night.
  5642.  
  5643. To a smattering of applause, Drescher said that Hollywood’s effort to stop showing plastic on camera was the industry’s biggest effort “to save the planet since World War II.”
  5644.  
  5645. Drescher, during the SAG Awards carried live Sunday night on Netflix’s channel on YouTube, said:
  5646.  
  5647. “I am very proud to say that SAG-AFTRA and MPAA has forged Green Council, the biggest joint effort of stars and studios to save the planet since World War II. Mission No. 1: an honor system to eliminate single-use plastic on camera, behind the scenes, and leverage star power to challenge audiences around the world to do the same. You may notice this year on your tables, they’re all glass bottles.”
  5648.  
  5649.  
  5650.  
  5651.  
  5652.  
  5653. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Nothing better encapsulates out-of-touch Hollywood celebrities than the hubris displayed by Drescher to describe actors not using single-use plastic on camera as key to the greatest effort ‘to save the planet since World War II.’ That’s ludicrous, and even her own union members realized that, hence the very minimal applause in the room. Many viewers watching at home were likely laughing at her absurdity. Perhaps she should be a little more concerned about her members demanding on-set trailers and private jets.”
  5654.  
  5655. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5656.  
  5657.  
  5658.  
  5659.  
  5660. ■ February 20: Liberal Media Scream: The View hits ‘Ron DeSaster,’ would ‘ban the alphabet’
  5661.  
  5662. (Washington Examiner post)
  5663.  
  5664. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the hosts of ABC’s The View and their escalating screeching about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and his efforts to have public school lessons conform with state law and what Sunshine State parents want.
  5665.  
  5666. Instead of a level-headed discussion about his efforts, the hosts attacked DeSantis as a right-wing social warrior who liberal Republican and never-Trumper Ana Navarro dubbed “Ron DeSaster.” The name-calling included unhinged charges that the governor is so anti-education that he would “ban the alphabet.”
  5667.  
  5668. The ranting followed moves by DeSantis to question a new College Board Advanced Placement class on black history. He and some other governors are concerned the liberal class plan teaches critical race theory and other lessons banned in the state.
  5669.  
  5670. “I think he’s going to ban the alphabet. Holy hell,” said Navarro.
  5671.  
  5672. From ABC’s The View on Thursday, Feb. 16:
  5673.  
  5674. ANA NAVARRO: What this is all about getting on Fox News. What this is all about is fanning the flames of grievance, of white grievance. What this is all about is manufacturing culture wars that do not exist so that he can come out like William Wallace, the guy in Braveheart — “Freedom!” Listen, I live in Florida. I live under Gov. Ron DeSaster!
  5675.  
  5676. SUNNY HOSTIN: You got to move, Ana.
  5677.  
  5678. NAVARRO: Every day, I wake up and wonder what he’s going to be. What’s the flavor du jour today? What’s he going to be against today? He’s against AP He’s against DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion. He’s against [environmental, social, and governance] this week. He’s against electric stoves.
  5679.  
  5680. HOSTIN: Don’t say gay.
  5681.  
  5682. NAVARRO: He’s against LGBTQ. I think he’s going to ban the alphabet. Holy hell.
  5683.  
  5684. JOY BEHAR: These people, these fascists out there like DeSantis, they think that we’re just going to sit back and let them do whatever they want. No, we’re not. We’ve seen this movie before. OK? Those of us who lived in the '60s and '70s, we saw this movie. There were many, many fascist tactics coming down the pike from Nixon and the rest of these fascists; that’s what they are. And we protested and we protested, and we ended a war that was illegal. And we did stuff. And it’s happening again. That’s the good news.
  5685.  
  5686.  
  5687.  
  5688.  
  5689.  
  5690. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “The unhinged reaction to Ron DeSantis says something about who the left is most afraid of running for president. The stars of The View can’t have an honest discussion about his policies and ideas, so they rant and rave and call him a ‘fascist’ and make other ridiculous accusations. It may entertain liberal viewers, but it should be embarrassing to ABC News, which produces the daily gabfest.”
  5691.  
  5692. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5693.  
  5694.  
  5695.  
  5696. ■ February 13: Liberal Media Scream: Stephanopoulos demands GOP investigate Trump family
  5697.  
  5698. (Washington Examiner post)
  5699.  
  5700.  
  5701. Armed only with a Washington Post story about Saudi links to Kushner and Trump, Stephanopoulos asked Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the panel, “Will you be investigating that as well?”
  5702.  
  5703. Comer called for strict ethics disclosure laws, which Democrats have resisted, but that wasn’t good enough for the media star and former Clinton White House aide. “To be clear,” he said, “you believe that this should apply to Kushner and Trump as well as the Bidens at this point?”
  5704.  
  5705. The exchange on Sunday’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC:
  5706.  
  5707. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you more about your oversight responsibilities. You made it clear you are going to be looking at Hunter Biden and his financial entanglements with foreign countries including China. I want to put up a front-page story from the Washington Post this morning detailing Jared Kushner’s ties to the Saudis. “After helping the prince's rise, Trump and Kushner benefit from Saudi funds.” A $2 billion investment in Kushner’s funds from the Saudis. We know the president, former President Trump, has also received funds related to the Saudi golf tour. Sen. Ron Wyden says these entanglements deserve investigation. Will you be investigating that as well?
  5708.  
  5709. REP. JAMES COMER: I think everything’s on the table. Look, we’re investigating Joe Biden. We know that Joe Biden said during the presidential campaign that he had no knowledge of his son’s business interests. He wasn’t involved. He didn’t benefit from them. We have evidence that would suggest otherwise, and this is very concerning. ...
  5710.  
  5711. The Democrats complained about Kushner’s foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the entire Biden family’s foreign business dealings. We need to know what is allowable and what isn’t allowable. We need to have strict ethics laws, and we need to significantly increase the disclosure laws in America. So I think this investigation is going to be very important to fix a problem before it gets out of hand.
  5712.  
  5713. STEPHANOPOULOS: But to be clear, you believe that this should apply to Kushner and Trump as well as the Bidens at this point?
  5714.  
  5715. COMER: I believe that when we talk about passing legislation to set a line as to where you can be with relatives of high-ranking government officials with respect to doing business with adversaries overseas, then it would apply to everyone. We need to fix this before it gets worse in the next administration.
  5716.  
  5717.  
  5718.  
  5719.  
  5720.  
  5721. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “If only the Washington press corps were as eager over the years to jump on stories about Hunter and Joe Biden getting money out of China as they have consistently been to promote every new allegation against anyone in Donald Trump’s orbit. It’s almost as if Stephanopoulos is trying to deflect from Joe Biden, to apply his own version of ‘both-siderism’ to undermine the impact of Congressman Comer’s upcoming hearings on the Bidens.”
  5722.  
  5723. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5724.  
  5725.  
  5726.  
  5727.  
  5728. ■ February 6: Liberal Media Scream: Reporters beg for Biden to get ‘credit’
  5729.  
  5730. (Washington Examiner post)
  5731.  
  5732.  
  5733. This week’s Liberal Media Scream shows how desperate some in the media are for President Joe Biden to get “credit” for his efforts at a time when polls show that 62% do not believe the Democrat has accomplished much.
  5734.  
  5735. The top cheerleader is NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell who said on Meet the Press that the president isn’t getting the thanks he deserves.
  5736.  
  5737. “He’s not getting credit for the economy, and should be,” she told host Chuck Todd.
  5738.  
  5739. From Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  5740.  
  5741. ANDREA MITCHELL: And he’s not getting credit for the economy, and should be. Look at it, you know, I think the danger of recession is receding. It’s not altogether gone. We see a big jobs market. It’s a problem for Jay Powell [chairman of the Federal Reserve] because now they do have to keep tightening. But, you know, wage growth is moderating.
  5742.  
  5743. CHUCK TODD: I tell you, people don’t–
  5744.  
  5745. MITCHELL: Layoffs are only in a few sectors, they’re not universal.
  5746.  
  5747. TODD: There's no doubt–
  5748.  
  5749. AMY WALTER: Manufacturing is building.
  5750.  
  5751. TODD: –but people still feel like this economy’s just not–
  5752.  
  5753. MITCHELL: That’s right, because inflation’s stable.
  5754.  
  5755. TODD: It still feels wobbly.
  5756.  
  5757. CORNELL BELCHER: Mid-summer, mid-summer – let’s, let’s check in on that.
  5758.  
  5759. TODD: That’s fair.
  5760.  
  5761.  
  5762.  
  5763.  
  5764.  
  5765. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “How nice it must be to be a Democratic president so you have leading members of the Washington press corps spinning talking points in your favor, days before your big speech, about how you ‘should be’ getting more credit. Mitchell’s contentions about Biden’s record are better suited for someone from the White House press office than someone who is supposed to be a dispassionate journalist.”
  5766.  
  5767. Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5768.  
  5769.  
  5770.  
  5771.  
  5772. ■ January 30: Liberal Media Scream: Hammer time: Speaker McCarthy pounds media bias and double standards
  5773.  
  5774. (Washington Examiner post)
  5775.  
  5776.  
  5777. Last week, for example, when a reporter didn’t like McCarthy’s answer to a question, the speaker said: “Let me be very clear and respectful to you. You asked me a question. When I answer it, it's the answer to your question. You don't get to determine whether I answer your question or not, OK?”
  5778.  
  5779. Then, on Face the Nation, he bristled when host Margaret Brennan criticized his appointment of “election deniers” to committee posts. Noting that she didn’t complain when Democratic deniers of former President Donald Trump’s election got good committee seats, he said, “If you want to hold Republicans to that equation, why don’t you also hold Democrats?”
  5780.  
  5781. From Sunday’s interview on CBS’s Face the Nation:
  5782.  
  5783. Margaret Brennan: I want to ask you about some of the makeup of your caucus.
  5784.  
  5785. Speaker Kevin McCarthy: Yes.
  5786.  
  5787. Brennan: According to CBS records, 70% of the House GOP members denied the results of the 2020 election. You put many of them on very key committees: Intelligence, Homeland Security, Oversight. Why are you elevating people who are denying reality like that?
  5788.  
  5789. McCarthy: Well, if you look to the Democrats, their ranking member [Jamie] Raskin had the same thing, denied Trump or Bush was in there. Bennie Thompson —
  5790.  
  5791. Brennan: Did you see those numbers we just put up there? Seventy percent!
  5792.  
  5793. McCarthy: Did you also be fair and equal where you looked at Raskin did the same thing, Bennie Thompson, whose a ranking member and was a chair? These individuals were chair of the Democratic Party.
  5794.  
  5795. Brennan: I’m asking you, as leader of Kevin McCarthy’s House, why you made these choices? These were your choices.
  5796.  
  5797. McCarthy: Yeah, they're my choices, but they’re the conference choices. But I’m also asking you when you look to see just Republicans — Democrats have done the same thing. So maybe it’s not denying. Maybe it’s the only opportunity they have to have a question about what went on during the election. So if you want to hold Republicans to that equation, why don’t you also hold Democrats? Why don’t you hold Jamie Raskin? Why don’t you hold Bennie Thompson? When Democrats had appointed them to be chair, I never once heard you ask Nancy Pelosi or any Democrat that question when they were in power, in the majority. When they questioned —
  5798.  
  5799. Brennan: You’re talking about things going back to 2000, which was a time, I didn’t have this show back then, which is why I’m asking you now about your leadership.
  5800.  
  5801. McCarthy: No, no! They were in power last Congress. So why —
  5802.  
  5803. Brennan: You’re talking about questions from the 2000 election.
  5804.  
  5805. McCarthy: You’re asking me about questions that happened to another Congress.
  5806.  
  5807. Brennan: About these choices you just made, just made. This is your Congress.
  5808.  
  5809. McCarthy: These are members who just got elected by their constituents, and we put them into committees. And I’m proud to do it.
  5810.  
  5811.  
  5812.  
  5813.  
  5814.  
  5815. Brent Baker, the vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “It’s always refreshing to see a politician push back against a liberal media storyline the journalist presumes is beyond questioning, especially when the journalist is someone so oblivious as Brennan is to her bias.”
  5816.  
  5817. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS (CHEERS).
  5818.  
  5819.  
  5820.  
  5821.  
  5822. ■ January 23: Liberal Media Scream: MSNBC’s Joy Reid says DeSantis likes only ‘happy slaves’
  5823.  
  5824. (Washington Examiner post)
  5825.  
  5826.  
  5827. This week’s Liberal Media Scream highlights the latest cable TV attack on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s war on woke policies in what is likely to become a regular media pattern as the top Republican rival of former President Donald Trump steps closer to a 2024 bid.
  5828.  
  5829. The attack came from MSNBC’s Joy Reid, enraged that DeSantis scuttled a pilot AP black course in state schools. But it’s not that simple, despite her spin.
  5830.  
  5831. According to the DeSantis administration, the new course offered by College Board violates Florida's new anti-"woke" law because it is favorable to critical race theory.
  5832.  
  5833. “As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow,” said Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary. “As Governor DeSantis has stated, our classrooms will be a place for education, not indoctrination."
  5834.  
  5835. Reid, however, smeared DeSantis as a racist for his administration’s actions. “I’m not saying Ron DeSantis is racist, but to quote [former Tallahassee Mayor] Andrew Gillum, I think the racists might think he’s racist.”
  5836.  
  5837. She added that DeSantis wants only happy history taught in schools, “the history of slavery as happy slaves, good slave masters.”
  5838.  
  5839. Plus, watch as she twists the other AP history classes taught in Florida as she bashes the “book-banning wannabe president.”
  5840.  
  5841. From Thursday’s The ReidOut on MSNBC:
  5842.  
  5843. Joy Reid: The [Stop Woke Act] is aimed at eradicating the teaching of history, gender identity, and sexual orientation in favor of curriculum that centers and lionizes people who look like Ron DeSantis. Just take a look at what AP courses are deemed educationally valuable in the state of Florida per the book-banning wannabe president. European history, of course. Along with courses on the history and language of Italy, where DeSantis’s family hails from, Germany, and Japan, which happened to be the Axis countries the U.S. fought during World War II. Now, whether Ron would consider fascist Italy to have been a bad guy in that war, well, that’s up for debate. ...
  5844.  
  5845. So, what DeSantis is essentially saying is that the only valuable Advanced Placement class for a Florida student are classes that are about Europe or the other Axis countries. That’s it. African-American studies is not deemed valuable, and it’s not that he’s saying you can’t teach black history, but here’s the evidence. It’s how you teach black history that he’s got a problem with.
  5846.  
  5847. DeSantis, when he was a high school history teacher — this is the quote from one of his former students. He was a high school history teacher at a private school in Georgia. ‘Mr. DeSantis was mean to me and hostile toward me,’ said Miss Pompey, who graduated in 2003. ‘Not aggressively but passively because I was black.’ She recalled DeSantis teaching, this is the important part, Civil War history in a way that sounded to her like an attempt to justify slavery. So, when I add that to the fact he’s going after the National Hockey League because they dare to recruit nonblack people, essentially saying you may recruit white people and continue to keep a very white league white, but you may not try to recruit minorities. You know, I’m not saying Ron DeSantis is racist, but to quote Andrew Gillum, I think the racists might think he’s racist. ...
  5848.  
  5849. It’s the Daughters of the American Revolution, the pro-Confederate groups who insisted that we can only teach the history of slavery as happy slaves, good slave masters. If you’re doing that, I promise you an AP class that taught that, that slavery was good, because it seemed at least per his former students, Dr. [Steve] Gallon [member of the Miami-Dale school board] that he wanted to teach history of slavery as sort of gallant slave owners who were kind to their happy slaves.
  5850.  
  5851. He’s cool with that. And if the AP course said that, he’d be fine with it. I also think that you’ve seen the revelation of what this is really about. A guy named Stanley Kurtz claims he read the story, that he read the curriculum, and he said, ‘The larger danger here is that these courses, if they’re approved, will see the college board devise AP courses in women's studies, gender studies, transgender studies, Latino studies, environmental studies, a full panoply of polarized studies that have Balkanized and politicized higher education.’ Dr. Gallon, in your view, is this an attempt to shut down the teaching of not just black history but any history but the Hallmark card of white and European history?
  5852.  
  5853.  
  5854.  
  5855.  
  5856.  
  5857. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Reid’s vitriol shows DeSantis must be succeeding in making inroads to undercut institutions, such as the education establishment, as vehicles for liberal indoctrination of students. So, DeSantis must be discredited with over-the-top invective before he gains any traction in a presidential race. But Reid’s hatred toward him will only elevate the admiration for him amongst conservatives and many independent voters.”
  5858.  
  5859. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5860.  
  5861.  
  5862.  
  5863.  
  5864. ■ January 16, 2023: Liberal Media Scream: In Chuck Todd’s ‘facts,’ Sen. Ron Johnson sees bias
  5865.  
  5866. (Washington Examiner post)
  5867.  
  5868.  
  5869. This week’s Liberal Media Scream raises an interesting question in today’s partisan Washington. Why do Republicans talk to liberal journalists if they know that they are going to be insulted?
  5870.  
  5871. That was the case Sunday on Chuck Todd’s Meet the Press when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WY) appeared, knowing he was holding the short end of the stick no matter what he said. Johnson even said so: “This is pretty obvious to anybody watching this, is you don’t invite me on to interview me. You invite me on to argue with me.”
  5872.  
  5873. The host, of course, was having none of it. In between his favorite authority openings of “Look” and “So,” he got the last insult in when he said, “You can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I understand it’s part of your identity.”
  5874.  
  5875. From Sunday’s Meet the Press:
  5876.  
  5877. CHUCK TODD: I’ll take it at your word that you’re ethically bothered by Hunter Biden. I’m curious, though. You seem to have a pattern.
  5878.  
  5879. SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Are you not? Are you not?
  5880.  
  5881. TODD: I’m a journalist. I have to deal in facts. I deal in facts, so senator, my question to you is, I have skepticism of both parties. I sit here with skepticism of a lot of people’s work.
  5882.  
  5883. JOHNSON: So do I.
  5884.  
  5885. TODD: And I’m curious, are you — were you at all concerned — your Senate Democrats want to investigate Jared Kushner’s loan from the Qatari government when he was working in the government, negotiating many things in the Middle East? Are you not concerned about that? I say that because it seems to me if you’re concerned about what Hunter Biden did, you should be equally outraged about what Jared Kushner did.
  5886.  
  5887. JOHNSON: I’m concerned about getting the truth. I don’t target individuals —
  5888.  
  5889. TODD: You don’t? You’re targeting Hunter Biden multiple times on this show, senator. You’re targeting an individual.
  5890.  
  5891. JOHNSON: Chuck, you know, part of the problem, and this is pretty obvious to anybody watching this is, you don’t invite me on to interview me. You invite me on to argue with me. I’m just trying to lay out the facts that certainly Sen. Grassley and I uncovered. They were suppressed. They were censored. They interfered in the 2020 election. Conservatives understand that. Unfortunately, liberals in the media don’t. And that’s part of the reasons our politics are inflamed is we do not have an unbiased media. We don’t. It’s unfortunate. I’m all for a free press, and it needs to be more unbiased.
  5892.  
  5893. TODD: Senator, look — go to partisan — Senator, look, we’re trying to do issues here and facts. Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I understand it’s part of your identity.
  5894.  
  5895.  
  5896.  
  5897.  
  5898.  
  5899. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Chuck Todd, in all his obnoxious glory. Kudos to Sen. Ron Johnson for taking on Todd’s obvious bias and hostility to the concerns of conservatives, even if he is obvious to his own ‘cocoon.’ Pot meet kettle.”
  5900.  
  5901. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5902.  
  5903.  
  5904.  
  5905.  
  5906. ■ January 9, 2023: Liberal Media Scream: James Comer nails Chuck Todd’s biased views
  5907.  
  5908. (Washington Examiner post)
  5909.  
  5910.  
  5911. This week’s Liberal Media Scream is the first proof that there is a new sheriff in town, a House GOP majority that is eager to point out the biased and often hypocritical views in the media.
  5912.  
  5913. In our spotlight is Rep. James Comer (R-KY), incoming chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, invited on to Chuck Todd’s NBC Sunday show, Meet the Press. He faced the typically biased questions and views of the host, such as when Todd suggested the GOP would be holding votes on legislation it knows President Joe Biden won’t sign, as if Democrats never held “show” votes.
  5914.  
  5915. Todd also sneered at Comer’s investigation agenda, suggesting it was just political theater.
  5916.  
  5917. But instead of taking it, the lawmaker pushed right back, calling out the biased media.
  5918.  
  5919. When Todd dismissed Republican plans to hold votes on term limits and a balanced budget as “show votes,” Comer countered, “A lot of times, as you know, Chuck, you have to take bills through numerous sessions of Congress before they finally become law.”
  5920.  
  5921. And when Todd hit GOP plans to probe the Biden administration as “more partisan than professional,” Comer said, “I think the only people that see this as a partisan investigation are the media and the hardcore Democrats.” And for good measure, he added, “Are you kidding me!”
  5922.  
  5923. Two of the exchanges from Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC:
  5924.  
  5925. CHUCK TODD: I‘m curious, those two things you mention, those are show votes. They’re not going to pass. They have no chance of passing. Some of them might need to be constitutional amendments, and you know how arduous that process is. What’s the point of passing a bill that basically, you get to put a press release out on, but it doesn’t get enacted?
  5926.  
  5927. REP. JAMES COMER: A lot of times, as you know, Chuck, you have to take bills through numerous sessions of Congress before they finally become law.
  5928.  
  5929. TODD: Let me ask you this. You’re going to do a lot of oversight. You’re going to have a lot of subpoenas. Many people look at what you’re doing, and they see that it looks more partisan than professional. Tell me how you’re going to try to departisanize an investigation? Or do you expect it to be partisan?
  5930.  
  5931. COMER: Well, with all due respect, Chuck, I disagree with that. I think the only people that see this as a partisan investigation are the media and the hardcore Democrats. Look, at the same moment that the Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee released Donald Trump’s taxes, they then moments later turned around and said, “Comer’s investigation of the Biden family influence peddling is a revenge hearing.” I mean, are you kidding me?
  5932.  
  5933.  
  5934.  
  5935.  
  5936.  
  5937. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Comer is off to a great start, recognizing the news media are his enemy just as much as Democrats. It was refreshing to hear an elevated Republican leader take on Todd for his multiple hypocrisies, suddenly concerned, now that Republicans are in charge in the House, about the partisanship of an investigation and the futility of votes on two conservative agenda items that will embarrass Democrats. As if Democrats have never had ‘show votes,’ to put Republicans in a bad light, which most journalists found admirable.”
  5938.  
  5939. Rating: FIVE out of FIVE SCREAMS (CHEERS.)
  5940.  
  5941.  
  5942.  
  5943.  
  5944. ■ January 2, 2023: Liberal Media Scream: MSNBC calls GOP the party of il Duce
  5945.  
  5946. (Washington Examiner post)
  5947.  
  5948.  
  5949. This week’s Liberal Media Scream features MSNBC doing its best to become the network of the crackpot Left, talking itself into irrelevance for just about everyone else.
  5950.  
  5951. Not satisfied with its record of attacking Republicans and conservatives as MAGA crazies, the cable channel rolled out a host and guest who dismissed the party as fascists. And not just simple fascists such as World War II-era Italian leader Benito Mussolini.
  5952.  
  5953. How about “neo-fascist,” “proto-fascist,” and “semi-fascist?” Now that’s got to hurt.
  5954.  
  5955. The name-calling came Saturday when Mehdi Hasan hosted Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley on Velshi on MSNBC.
  5956.  
  5957. Stanley, who authored a book titled How Fascism Works, warned, “I think ‘semi-fascism,’ ‘fascism,’ ‘neo-fascism,’ these are accurate descriptions. We need to drop talk of populism, drop these misleading descriptions that hide what we’re actually facing.”
  5958.  
  5959. From Saturday’s Velshi:
  5960.  
  5961. MEHDI HASAN: Jason, the GOP is back in power again, at least in the House of Representatives, which means there will be a fair bit of normalizing of them again by the media. In your view, is it fair to describe the modern GOP as ‘neo-fascist’ or ‘proto-fascist’ or, to quote Joe Biden on the MAGA movement, ‘semi-fascist?’
  5962.  
  5963. JASON STANLEY, Yale University: There’s certainly within the modern GOP, as the scapegoating of LGBT citizens demonstrates, a fascist movement rising. We — and, to talk about this as some kind of European thing is a confusion since fascism is Jim Crow with a foreign accent. So we have a native, we have multiple native far-right extremist movements: Christian Nationalism, we’ve got, sort of, heritage of Jim Crow. We’ve got an anti-democratic business establishment. And this is a structure, a grouping, that’s going to bring people to vote for an authoritarian party. And that’s what we have, that’s what the modern GOP is increasingly looking like — as Ruth [NYU history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat] said, an anti-democratic party. I think ‘semi-fascism,’ ‘fascism,’ ‘neo-fascism,’ these are accurate descriptions. We need to drop talk of populism, drop these misleading descriptions that hide what we’re actually facing.
  5964.  
  5965.  
  5966.  
  5967.  
  5968.  
  5969. Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “Quite the multiple-choice, a range which says more about the narrow thinking of MSNBC hosts and guests trying to discredit Republicans than it does about anything to fear from Republicans. Hasan dreads ‘normalizing’ Republicans because it’s a lot easier to demonize them than to take on and seriously address views with which you disagree.”
  5970.  
  5971. Rating: FOUR out of FIVE SCREAMS.
  5972.  
  5973.  
  5974.  
  5975.  
  5976. &gt; Liberal Media Screams for 2021 and 2022
  5977.  
  5978. &gt; For all of 2020.
  5979.  
  5980. &gt; For all of 2019.
  5981.  
  5982. &gt; For all of 2018.
  5983.  
  5984. &gt; For July through December 2017.
  5985.  
  5986. &gt; For January through June 2017.
  5987.  
  5988. &gt; For July through December 2016.
  5989.  
  5990. &gt; For January through June 2016.
  5991.  
  5992. &gt; For July to December 2015.
  5993.  
  5994.  
  5995.  
  5996. </description>
  5997.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 7:12 PM</pubDate>
  5998.    <dc:creator>Brent Baker</dc:creator>
  5999.    <guid isPermaLink="false">276694</guid>
  6000.    </item>
  6001. <item>
  6002.  <title>Google Invests in AI Education as it Unleashes ‘Secret Weapon’</title>
  6003.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/catherine-salgado/2024/04/29/google-invests-ai-education-it-unleashes-secret</link>
  6004.  <description>Google just announced a massive investment in training Americans to use its biased and anti-free speech artificial intelligence.
  6005.  
  6006. Big Tech giant Google proudly declared its AI education investment in an April 26 release. Beneficiaries of these funds include the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and Goodwill, which are each expected to train American military members, veterans and civilians in AI skills. The problem? Google’s AI and search engine both have a track record of giving anti-free speech and woke results, so much so that the tech company is not a trustworthy source of AI training.
  6007.  
  6008. “Together with our partners, we want to make sure everyone can take advantage of the opportunities AI will provide,” the release declared. “That’s why today we are announcing a $75 million Google AI Opportunity Fund, made possible with support from Google.org, our philanthropic arm.” The release added, “Through this fund, Google.org will work with nonprofit, education, and other sectors to train one million Americans of all backgrounds and provide them with AI skills at no cost.”
  6009.  
  6010. Google is actively trying to get people to use its AI but it is not willing to reveal exactly how it works behind the scenes. 
  6011.  
  6012. As MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider pointed out, Google’s AI is also closed source, meaning its source code is kept secret. So even if IVMF and Goodwill train Americans using Google AI, people won’t be able to see fully what they’re using. Schneider highlighted the dangers of this: “Users can become involuntary tools for Google’s political purposes. This is Google’s secret weapon.”
  6013.  
  6014. This comes on the heels of studies MRC Free Speech America released illustrating the Google AI’s leftist bent. 
  6015.  
  6016. MRC caught Google’s Gemini promoting leftist climate propaganda and justifying censorship on Earth Day. MRC researchers queried, “Is climate information free speech under the First Amendment?” Gemini pontificated in reply that “Incitement to Violence” and “Fraudulent Speech” or “Speech intended to mislead for personal gain — can be restricted.” The AI did not then clarify how climate information could potentially fit into the categories it listed.
  6017.  
  6018. In March, MRC released a report on a whopping 41 times that Google has engaged in election interference since 2008. Google's AI Gemini (formerly Bard) displayed bias this election cycle, refusing to answer prompts about two of Biden’s worst weak spots; namely, the Democrat president’s mental health and the ongoing border crisis. Google’s search engine also buried the campaign websites of Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential opponents.
  6019.  
  6020. Will Google’s AI funding only exacerbate the bias and censorship inherent in its own technology?
  6021.  
  6022. Conservatives are under attack. Contact Google at 650-253-0000 and demand it be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.</description>
  6023.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 6:21 PM</pubDate>
  6024.    <dc:creator>Catherine Salgado</dc:creator>
  6025.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283949</guid>
  6026.    </item>
  6027. <item>
  6028.  <title>ABC Boasts Crackdowns 'Hardening the Resolve' of Pro-Hamas Students</title>
  6029.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/04/29/abc-boasts-crackdowns-hardening-resolve-pro-hamas-students</link>
  6030.  <description>The anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas encampment continued to spread to other university and college campuses like a disease over the weekend and ABC correspondent Trevor Ault responded on Monday by boasting that crackdowns were “hardening the resolve” of the student extremists. He even suggested that they were the ones being threatened and not the ones causing the problems.
  6031.  
  6032. Right at the top of the segment, Ault and fill-in anchor/transportation correspondent Gio Benitez bantered about how the crackdown seemed to be having the opposite effect on the encampments:
  6033.  
  6034.  
  6035. BENITEZ: And here at home, amid the Israel/Hamas War there is growing unrest on college campuses. Police arresting hundreds of people this weekend at protests there with high schoolers making their decision on where to go to college in just two days. Trevor Ault is at USC in Los Angeles with more on this. Good morning, Trevor.
  6036.  
  6037. AULT: Good morning, Gio. So, the heightened response from police and from universities seems to really only be hardening the resolve of a lot of these protesters. And what's especially notable is we have people on all sides here, outside and inside the demonstrations who say they don't feel safe.
  6038.  
  6039.  
  6040.  
  6041.  
  6042.  
  6043.  
  6044.  
  6045.  
  6046.  
  6047.  
  6048. Without showing any of the anti-Semitic incidents caught on camera, particularly the videos of students chanting for the murder of Jews, Ault portrayed the anti-Semites as victims of unfair characterizations and free speech crackdowns:
  6049.  
  6050.  
  6051. AULT: Saturday demonstrations from Northeastern to Indiana, Washington University in St. Louis, and Arizona State, many demanding their schools divest from companies believed to be profiting from the war and calling for a cease-fire. Several accusing police and their universities of infringing on their right to protest.
  6052.  
  6053. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 1: We want to feel supported by our institution and we want to feel like they're meeting us.
  6054.  
  6055. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 2: We will not be leaving until those demands are met.
  6056.  
  6057. AULT: Cornell University suspending several students. School officials also accusing some protesters at rallies on campus of chanting anti-Semitic phrases.
  6058.  
  6059.  
  6060. Ault also tried to cast doubt on who could be behind pro-Hamas vandalism. “Officials at USC accusing some demonstrators of harassment and vandalism, ‘say no to genocide’ painted on this statue,” he gawked.
  6061.  
  6062. Yeah, it’s a real mystery, Trevor. Who could have spray-painted that?
  6063.  
  6064. Meanwhile, over on NBC’s Today, correspondent Erin McLaughlin hyped how pro-Hamas extremists tore down an American flag and replaced it with a Palestinian one. “At Harvard, protesters put up Palestinian flag where an American flag would fly,” she said.
  6065.  
  6066. ABC concluded the segment with Ault seemingly suggesting that the students weren’t responsible for what they were doing. “And it has been noted that some of the people at these campus demonstrations, including some arrested, are not students,” he argued.
  6067.  
  6068. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
  6069.  
  6070.  
  6071. ABC’s Good Morning America
  6072. April 29, 2024
  6073. 7:09:08 a.m. Eastern
  6074.  
  6075. GIO BENITEZ: And here at home, amid the Israel/Hamas War there is growing unrest on college campuses. Police arresting hundreds of people this weekend at protests there with high schoolers making their decision on where to go to college in just two days. Trevor Ault is at USC in Los Angeles with more on this. Good morning, Trevor.
  6076.  
  6077. TREVOR AULT: Good morning, Gio. So, the heightened response from police and from universities seems to really only be hardening the resolve of a lot of these protesters. And what's especially notable is we have people on all sides here, outside and inside the demonstrations who say they don't feel safe.
  6078.  
  6079. [Cuts to video]
  6080.  
  6081. This weekend, hundreds of protesters arrested at college campuses across country. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations escalating further, along with counter-protests and the police response to these accelerating tensions.
  6082.  
  6083. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I support the right for people to protest, always, as they should have. I think it brings in a lot of outside, like, antagonists.
  6084.  
  6085. AULT: Saturday demonstrations from Northeastern to Indiana, Washington University in St. Louis, and Arizona State, many demanding their schools divest from companies believed to be profiting from the war and calling for a cease fire. Several accusing police and their universities of infringing on their right to protest.
  6086.  
  6087. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 1: We want to feel supported by our institution and we want to feel like they're meeting us.
  6088.  
  6089. PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 2: We will not be leaving until those demands are met.
  6090.  
  6091. AULT: Cornell University suspending several students. School officials also accusing some protesters at rallies on campus of chanting anti-Semitic phrases. At UCLA Sunday, pro-Israel demonstrators holding a counter-protest.
  6092.  
  6093. PRO-ISRAEL PROTESTER: They don't know what is going on in Gaza. They don't know what is going on. And they need to learn.
  6094.  
  6095. AULT: Thousands showing up. The university saying a group breached the barrier separating the two groups leading to some violent altercations. The LAPD issuing a citywide tactical alert through the weekend. Officials at USC accusing some demonstrators of harassment and vandalism, “say no to genocide” painted on this statue. And this morning, with no end in sight for these demonstrations, more and more colleges and universities grappling with how to move forward.
  6096.  
  6097. KIM WEHLE (ABC contributor, University of Baltimore School of Law): Public universities and colleges and the police don't have the right to stop a message. They have a right sometimes to stop the manner in which the message is being conveyed. Hate speech is not protected. There are certain kinds of speech that are protected, but protesting the government's involvement in a conflict overseas is classic first amendment protected activity.
  6098.  
  6099. [Cuts back live]
  6100.  
  6101. AULT: And it has been noted that some of the people at these campus demonstrations, including some arrested, are not students. And here at USC, still, the students, the faculty, the staff, they all still have to show their ID just to get on campus.
  6102. </description>
  6103.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 4:50 PM</pubDate>
  6104.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  6105.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283948</guid>
  6106.    </item>
  6107. <item>
  6108.  <title>WashPost 'Fact Checker' Glenn Kessler Aids Biden, Throws Four More Pinocchios at Trump</title>
  6109.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/29/washpost-fact-checker-glenn-kessler-aids-biden-throws-four-more</link>
  6110.  <description> On Monday morning, Washington Post "Fact Checker" Glenn Kessler was tossing his "Four Pinocchios" Liar rating at Donald Trump again, this time over rent-support payments for migrants in the Democrat-run state of Michigan.
  6111.  
  6112. In recent months, Kessler has emptied a bucket of Pinocchios on Trump and his aides, but he's conveniently avoided throwing a single Pinocchio at Joe Biden, not even when Biden blamed Trump for massive Covid deaths: "We lost over 1,200,000 people because of the slow start in all this [vaccination] process.” 
  6113.  
  6114. Kessler ruled in February that "Biden’s phrasing is sufficiently subtle that a link is not so easily established." That's ridiculous. It looks like Glenn Kessler (D-D.C.). This was Monday's headline: 
  6115.  
  6116.  
  6117. Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.
  6118.  
  6119.  
  6120. Kessler established the federal government is assisting Michigan with rental subsidies, but it depends on what the meaning of "refugee" is.
  6121.  
  6122.  
  6123. The federal government, through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, has long provided hundreds of millions of dollars a year to states and nongovernment organizations to help refugees transition to life in the United States. The Office of Global Michigan supports such efforts in the state, and in October launched the Newcomer Rental Subsidy program. Under this initiative, for up to 12 months individuals who qualify may receive as much as $500 a month in rental subsidies.
  6124.  
  6125.  
  6126. Kessler repeatedly relies on 'the state" of Michigan to rebut the Trump camp, downplaying this is a Republican-Democrat fight in Michigan. 
  6127.  
  6128.  
  6129. The state says these qualified applicants include refugees, asylees, people with special immigrant visas who helped the U.S. government overseas, victims of human trafficking, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Afghan nationals and Ukrainians granted humanitarian parole. These are all people legally in the United States....
  6130.  
  6131. the state says that it will not consider any application with a pending defensive asylum hearing. 
  6132.  
  6133.  
  6134. Then he relies on "the state" to break down their rental-subsidy handouts, with this loaded summary: "In any case, more than half of the people who have been approved for rental subsidies are Afghan and Ukrainian refugees — a far cry from the murderers that Trump claims are overrunning the country."
  6135.  
  6136. Kessler also lined up the Biden administration to rebut Trump: "An HHS spokesman said the refugee office funds could not be used for asylum seekers....A White House spokesman also disputed Trump’s claims in a statement." None of these statements were going the be challenged by Kessler. They were just going to be repeated. 
  6137.  
  6138. Conservatives on Twitter mocked Kessler's conclusion: 
  6139.  
  6140.  
  6141. The link to Biden is even more dubious. This is a state program that has received federal grant money, but there is no indication that Biden is even aware of it. So it’s absurd to run ads that claim Biden is paying rent for immigrants who are in the country illegally.
  6142.  
  6143. Trump and MAGA Inc. earn Four Pinocchios.
  6144.  
  6145.  
  6146. Kessler has repeatedly defended Democrats when Republicans make claims about the Democrats providing benefits to illegal immigrants. After all, it is an election year. </description>
  6147.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 4:00 PM</pubDate>
  6148.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  6149.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283945</guid>
  6150.    </item>
  6151. <item>
  6152.  <title>Texas Attorney General Sues Biden Admin. For Title IX Misuse</title>
  6153.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/04/29/texas-attorney-general-sues-biden-admin-title-ix</link>
  6154.  <description>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just sued the Biden Administration for its unlawful use of Title IX to allow trans-identifying males the ability to compete in women's sports and use women’s bathrooms in public schools.
  6155.  
  6156. In early April, the Education Department revealed new regulations that would prohibit schools from being allowed to protect biological girls sports and safety. The new regulations are set to take place in August, hence Paxton’s decision to sue the Biden Administration with the help of America First Legal (AFL).
  6157.  
  6158. The new requirements would expand the definition of the word “sex” to include a student’s self-professed “gender identity.” Now, any educational program that receives federal funding like K-12 schools, colleges and universities will be required to adhere to the wishes of any student who identifies as a gender that isn’t scientifically accurate. Essentially then, a male student who claims to be transgender and identifies as a girl, would be welcomed into all spaces dedicated to actual girls. 
  6159.  
  6160. The Department of Education formally amended the Code of Federal Regulations to adhere to the new rule. 
  6161.  
  6162. A Press Release from Paxton’s office released Monday indicated that:
  6163.  
  6164.  
  6165. This rule violates existing federal law, ignores the Constitution, and denies women the protections that Title IX was intended to afford them. The Biden Administration has exceeded its authority and radically distorted the meaning intended by Congress when the law was made. Further, the changes would fundamentally transform the educational atmosphere of publicly funded educational institutions, forcing communities to capitulate to unscientific gender ideology and putting girls and women at risk in K-12 schools and on college campuses.
  6166.  
  6167.  
  6168. The new regulations also note that it would be considered “harassment” to use someone’s biologically accurate pronouns if they choose to live with a delusional sense of identity.
  6169.  
  6170. Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” said Attorney General Paxton. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.
  6171.  
  6172. America First Legal’s president Stephen Miller noted how this lawsuit is needed in order to protect young girls:
  6173.  
  6174.  
  6175. Biden’s new Title IX regulation is a vile obscenity: it forces women and girls to share locker rooms and restrooms with men. It forces them to call a he, a she, and to pretend in every way that a man is a woman, humiliating, degrading, and erasing women. This is an abomination, and as outside counsel for Texas we will battle this regulation in court with all the legal fight we can bring. It must be defeated for the sake of American women and for the sake of our daughters.
  6176.  
  6177.  
  6178. It’s really sad that we’re still having this fight when one slide clearly cares about the safety of young girls and the other cares about pushing an agenda.</description>
  6179.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 3:48 PM</pubDate>
  6180.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  6181.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283946</guid>
  6182.    </item>
  6183. <item>
  6184.  <title>Don Lemon Shows No Remorse for Trump-Russia Probe, Mocking MAGA in WILD Interview</title>
  6185.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/04/29/don-lemon-shows-no-remorse-trump-russia-probe-mocking-maga-wild</link>
  6186.  <description> In an interview posted Friday with The Intercept’s Ryan Grim and Federalist editor/National Journalism Center (NJC) director Emily Jashinsky, former CNN host Don Lemon showed zero regret or remorse for CNN’s Trump-Russia obsessions, mocking Trump voters as Boomer rubes, and insisted CNN had no liberal bias.
  6187.  
  6188. Grim and Jashinsky scored the Lemon interview as the first long-form sit-down for their show Counter Points as part of the Breaking Points network, helmed by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.
  6189.  
  6190. The pompous liberal journalist couldn’t even fully engage with the two questions about whether he felt like he had more freedom to cover topics now that he’s in independent media versus his days inside corporate media and, in a follow-up, whether he was restricted at CNN.
  6191.  
  6192. Lemon’s arrogance came out as he bragged he “probably had the most editorial freedom on — on my own network than anyone” perhaps in part due to the airtime (before admitting, yes, having an independent show has helped him foster “community” and better engagement with viewers).
  6193.  
  6194. After an amusing exchange when Lemon refused to engage with Jashinsky’s questions about whether his comment about Nikki Haley being past “her prime” truly outraged CNN bosses or was just an excuse to fire him, Lemon strongly pushed back when Grim next asked him whether he agreed CNN missed the ground swell on the far-left for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020. 
  6195.  
  6196. In essence, Lemon told Grim to stop whining and get over it since Sanders supporters were likely why Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton (click “expand”):
  6197.  
  6198.  
  6199. I didn’t necessarily think CNN was — was left. I thought that CNN was about facts. I think CNN has the best journalists in the world, but I also think — you asked me what my editorial meetings were like. I mean, we, no one was trying to push Bernie Sanders, at least in my editorial meetings and I would — I would venture to, to speak for the network now. Well, I’ll speak for myself. I don’t think that anyone was trying to push Bernie Sanders out. I think that Bernie Sanders may have had sort of — this sort of — sort of outsized influence with a certain segment of the Democratic Party. But all polls in 2016 pointed to Hillary Clinton, all polls in 2020 and public sentiment pointed to Joe Biden. And so, what was shocking, I think, to myself was the — the reaction from Democrats to the nomination of Hillary Clinton instead of Bernie Sanders in — in ‘16, especially in 2020. You know, I — I couldn’t get to gauge it because I didn’t get to go to the conventions. I think that was around, you know, because of COVID. But here’s a shocking thing.
  6200.  
  6201. (....)
  6202.  
  6203. [T]he public wanted Hillary Clinton. They didn’t want Bernie Sanders. So, I say that to say when, after all of, you know, Republicans did not love Donald Trump. They held their nose and they voted for him, all of the Never Trumpers, all of the people, you know, from Ted Cruz on down, when he became the nominee, everyone got behind him. When we were at the convention, it was Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. It wasn’t Jeb. It wasn’t, you know, Cruz, it wasn’t Rubio, it wasn’t any of those people. By the time we got to the Democratic convention and Hillary Clinton was a nominee, people were yelling, Bernie, Bernie and we were like, what the hell is going on? So, I think that Bernie Sanders, that — that — that wing of the Democratic Party actually did as much if not more damage to Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.
  6204.  
  6205. (....)
  6206.  
  6207. I think Bernie Sanders is a fantastic politician, but I do think that there is a lesson in it for Democrats that you have to get behind the person who is the actual nominee and you cannot have sour grapes of the person who did not become the nominee. That’s how the process worked. So, I know that people are upset and they’re upset about the progressive wing and they don’t think it gets covered enough, but this is where we are. The nominee — or the person is Joe Biden, the nominee or the person then was Hillary Clinton. I think the Bernie Sanders progressive wing of the party should have gotten behind — should have gotten behind them. And that’s the reason — one of the reasons — the main reasons that we’re in the predicament that we are now and that we had a Trump presidency.
  6208.  
  6209. (....)
  6210.  
  6211. Bernie Sanders was not going to win....Republicans fall in line. Democrats fight each other. Democrats usually wet the bed. I — I’m sorry, but Bernie Sanders was not the nominee nor was he ever going to become the nominee. And I know that people are upset by it, but that’s the truth. It’s the same thing for Republicans. Nikki Haley is not the nominee. She’s not gonna become the nominee. Donald Trump is a nominee, regardless if you like it or not. The guy is in court and guess what? Republicans are going to fall in line.
  6212.  
  6213.  
  6214. Jashinsky then confronted Lemon over the infamous 2020 segment with Rick Wilson and Wajahat Ali in which they mocked Trump supporters as moronic “Boomer rubes.” Jashinsky called it “a low point, honestly, in media coverage of Donald Trump” and wondered if Lemon regretted “seeing other Americans through that lens”.
  6215.  
  6216. Lemon flatly denied he participated in any of that demeaning behavior, claiming he only laughed about the idea Americans couldn’t find Ukraine on a map:
  6217.  
  6218.  
  6219. Truly remarkable exchange in the Don Lemon interview on 'Counter Points' when @EmilyJashinsky and @RyanGrim asked about Lemon's infamous January 2020 segment (https://t.co/rLV6JVKz7G) laughing about MAGA supporters with Rick Wilson and Wajahat Ali. Zero remorse.
  6220. Jashinsky:… pic.twitter.com/OUxhoytJiz
  6221. — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 26, 2024
  6222. Lemon’s scoffing even brought Grim to push back and fact-checked Lemon’s claim from earlier that 2020 polls always had Biden as a lock for the Democratic nomination (click “expand”):
  6223.  
  6224.  
  6225. GRIM: [T]o the point about the polling that, that you mentioned — 
  6226.  
  6227. LEMON: I mean, you can’t say that — 
  6228.  
  6229. GRIM: — oh, just one point —
  6230.  
  6231. LEMON: — you can’t say that.
  6232.  
  6233. GRIM: — on Joe Biden’s polling. Joe — Joe Biden was not polling ahead. You — you had said that Joe Biden was pulling ahead. Joe Biden was in the toilet the entire time. He finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, got annihilated in — in Nevada —
  6234.  
  6235. LEMON: Where was he by the time — where was he by the time got to the convention?
  6236.  
  6237. GRIM: — yeah. And — and then he — he won after, you know, $175 million in — in free media between Nevada and South Carolina. And then he wins Super Tuesday and he won the nomination, no doubt about it.
  6238.  
  6239. LEMON: Yeah.
  6240.  
  6241. GRIM: But he wasn’t polling ahead, uh, before that.
  6242.  
  6243.  
  6244. Jashinsky drew even more defensiveness from Lemon when she wondered if the press had made any strides to understand Americans outside their corporate liberal bubbles, adding Lemon himself was still somewhat in one since his new studio was on Park Avenue.
  6245.  
  6246. Also in the clip above, Lemon’s skull was so thick he denied Park Avenue was any sort of elite bubble because it’s still “part of America” and argued the media do “a great job of — of — of talking to people from, you know, from all parts of the country”.
  6247.  
  6248. Lemon somehow poured out even more elitist drivel when he claimed Trump supporters and Bernie supporters were far too “overrepresented” in the media and people like Grim and Jashinsky should get over it:
  6249.  
  6250.  
  6251. Another WILD exchange in the Don Lemon interview on 'Counter Points' with @EmilyJashinsky and @RyanGrim was when Lemon claimed corporate media do “a great job” making all voices heard.
  6252. In fact, he said, it's MAGA supporters and Bernie voters who are “overrepresented” in the… pic.twitter.com/t9kk55DLgC
  6253. — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 26, 2024
  6254. Later, he strongly took exception to Grim’s analysis on CNN being an establishment Democratic Party “mouthpiece” since it’s “only because of the Republican side and mostly Donald Trump and the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, the facts were not on their side” (click “expand”):
  6255.  
  6256.  
  6257. Don Lemon to @RyanGrim on the notion of CNN having become DNC-TV:
  6258. “I — I — I don’t like that. I don’t believe in that whole — I don’t believe in the premise of — of — listen, I’m not trying to be confrontational. I don’t agree with the premise of what you’re saying and when… pic.twitter.com/HvA44cvmuB
  6259. — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 26, 2024
  6260. The interview ended with more barbs being thrown when Jashinsky flatly told Lemon that CNN’s “Russia coverage was not great,” but Lemon said that’s only “your opinion” because “the Russia coverage on CNN was — was good” and the media in general having done “the best jobs that they could”.
  6261.  
  6262. Further, he told her to both stop “Monday morning quarterback[ing]” what happened and falling into the trap of many “people” who “romanticize the time that we were in, like people romanticize, you know, COVID.”
  6263.  
  6264. Grim threw one more jab, asking whether CNN had “ever said that there actually was not, never proven collusion between the Trump campaign and the” Russians.
  6265.  
  6266. Lemon initially said “You’ll have to ask CNN”, but then dove in head-first by falsely claiming that’s not true and there were indeed “accounts of collusion”.
  6267.  
  6268. Amazing.
  6269.  
  6270. To see the relevant transcript from April 26, click here.</description>
  6271.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 1:45 PM</pubDate>
  6272.    <dc:creator>Curtis Houck</dc:creator>
  6273.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283944</guid>
  6274.    </item>
  6275. <item>
  6276.  <title>Hostin Backs Pro-Hamas Camps: ‘Anti-War Protests’ Against ‘Apartheid’</title>
  6277.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2024/04/29/hostin-backs-pro-hamas-camps-anti-war-protests-against</link>
  6278.  <description> Finally, back from their spring break, Monday was the first day the liberal ladies of ABC’s The View were able to spout off about the anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas encampments sweeping across college campuses. Staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host, Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) didn’t disappoint as she threw her lot in with the students chanting for the murder of Jews. She decried those who told the truth about the students and whined about the anti-Semitic designation.
  6279.  
  6280. Most of the other co-hosts (Alyssa Farah-Griffin, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro) denounced the antisemitism on full display at the encampments and wanted it gone. But when it was her turn to speak, Hostin bloviated about how “we need to shift the framing of these college protests” and call them “anti-war protests” instead of “pro-Palestinian protests.”
  6281.  
  6282. She championed their calls for schools to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, suggesting they could be as successful as the campaigns against South African apartheid:
  6283.  
  6284.  
  6285. I think college campuses have been the place for anti-war protests for as far as I can remember. I think recent protests haven't even reached the scale of the major student protests that we saw in the late 1960s against the Vietnam War or even the 1980s against South African’s [sic] -- South Africa's practice of apartheid. We saw calls during apartheid to divest from South African companies, and that was very successful. Nelson Mandela said he believed that's what led in many respects to, you know, South Africa being freed from that system.
  6286.  
  6287.  
  6288. “The students are telling me, this is a humanitarian crisis,” she proclaimed as if pampered Ivy Leagues students who want the student debt they signed up for canceled knew anything about the real world. She parroted the long-debunked claims from the Hamas Ministry of Health that 35,000 civilians “mainly women and children” have been killed, and the United Nations’ unsupported claims of Israeli “war crimes.”
  6289.  
  6290.  
  6291.  
  6292.  
  6293.  
  6294.  
  6295.  
  6296.  
  6297.  
  6298. She ridiculously asserted that no one has acknowledged that Palestinians “are people.”
  6299.  
  6300. Hostin rounded out her support for the anti-Semites by whining about using that term. She insisted that people who use “antisemitism” to describe the protests are “far-right” with “authoritarian leanings” who oppose free speech. “They don't want students on these campuses to voice their opinions,” she decried
  6301.  
  6302. She received backup from moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who assumed a Jewish-sounding name when she entered show business. According to Goldberg, any media reports about the rampant rabid antisemitism in the encampments were just “clickbait.” Without evidence, she suggested that outlets were just recycling images of antisemitism from one location and claiming it was at multiple places.
  6303.  
  6304. “Part of our problem is the media takes what is the best clickbait. So, you see the same posters or you see the same people, but you don't see the folks who are doing peaceful stuff and saying, here's what we want to do,” she asserted. “I would caution the media to be very careful about what they're doing, and how they're handling this because what they seem to be doing is pushing a narrative,” she scolded outlets.
  6305.  
  6306. But as NewsBusters reports proved,  last week, liberal media outlets largely carried water for the anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas encampments.
  6307.  
  6308. While faux-conservative Navarro denounced the antisemitism, she did scold them for thinking about hurting President Biden in November. “There is not one group that anybody is protesting over that will be better off under Donald Trump. So, be very careful that you don't cut off your nose to spite your face by not showing up to vote in November,” she warned.
  6309.  
  6310. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
  6311.  
  6312.  
  6313. ABC’s The View
  6314. April 29, 2024
  6315. 11:07:51 a.m. Eastern
  6316.  
  6317. (…)
  6318.  
  6319. ANA NAVARRO: The only thing I want to remind Americans though as they're protesting is, you know, and we heard it. We've heard it. We heard them call Joe Biden, you know, a genocidal assassin and all sorts of things. There is not one group that anybody is protesting over that will be better off under Donald Trump. So, be very careful that you don't cut off your nose to spite your face by not showing up to vote in November. Because the first thing that Donald Trump did when he became president was issue a Muslim ban. And if you think not showing up to vote is not going to help Donald Trump get elected and Donald Trump will give Palestine any justice, I want what you're smoking.
  6320.  
  6321. [Applause]
  6322.  
  6323. SUNNY HOSTIN: I think it's, you know, I think we need to shift the framing of these college protests in fact, in my view. I think college campuses have been the place for anti-war protests for as far as I can remember. I think recent protests haven't even reached the scale of the major student protests that we saw in the late 1960s against the Vietnam War or even the 1980s against South African’s -- South Africa's practice of apartheid. We saw calls during apartheid to divest from South African companies, and that was very successful. Nelson Mandela said he believed that's what led in many respects to, you know, South Africa being freed from that system.
  6324.  
  6325. And so I think these are anti-war protests, and I think it's very distressing -- distressing that we are framing these as pro-Palestinian protests or pro-Israeli protests. These are anti-war protests, and what they are -- the students that I have spoken to at many of the ivy league schools and a student I did speak to at Emory – where a professor was thrown to the ground simply for asking the police, what are you doing to these peacefully protesting students? The students are telling me, this is a humanitarian crisis.
  6326.  
  6327. What we also don't talk enough about is the fact that 35,000, mainly women and children that are Palestinians have been murdered. What we also don't talk about, I think enough is that for some reason the discussion of against Israel's policies which the U.N. has called war crimes, which the international criminal court is investigating as war crimes. What we don't say is these are people, these are civilians, and we must protect them. Even President Biden at this point has said, you have gone too far.
  6328.  
  6329. So, it has never been in my life, in my career, the – criticizing policies of government is equated with anti-Semitism. And that, I think, is a far-right -- it comes from the far-right. It comes from the authoritarian leanings, where they don't want students on these campuses to voice their opinions because they want to change the narrative going forward. And I think we have to be very, very careful about that.
  6330.  
  6331. WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Since I haven't said anything – I'm sorry, I do have to do this. [Pauses] It is one of the great rights as an American to stand up and say something's wrong. Regardless of what your color is, if you are a woman, man, it doesn't matter. And we must teach our people how to be on the lookout.
  6332.  
  6333. Part of our problem is the media takes what is the best clickbait. So, you see the same posters or you see the same people, but you don't see the folks who are doing peaceful stuff and saying, here's what we want to do. I would caution the media to be very careful about what they're doing, and how they're handling this because what they seem to be doing is pushing a narrative that people are pushing against, which students are pushing against which I'm thrilled to see because I like when students get mad and say, “we want a change made.”
  6334.  
  6335. (…)
  6336. </description>
  6337.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 1:36 PM</pubDate>
  6338.    <dc:creator>Nicholas Fondacaro</dc:creator>
  6339.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283943</guid>
  6340.    </item>
  6341. <item>
  6342.  <title>NY Post Exposes Campus Activists Trained by Soros-Funded Group</title>
  6343.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/tom-olohan/2024/04/29/ny-post-exposes-campus-activists-trained-soros-funded-group</link>
  6344.  <description>The New York Post has unearthed some important information about some of the anti-Semitic pro-Hamas campus protests across the nation. 
  6345.  
  6346. In an April 26 article, New York Post reporter Isabel Vincent broke down not only the funding behind anti-Israel groups involved in campus protests but also revealed that some of the activists were trained to lead such protests by a Soros-funded group. “At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are ‘fellows’ of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR),” Vincent wrote. 
  6347.  
  6348. She added, “USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based ‘fellows’ in return for spending eight hours a week organizing ‘campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.’ They are trained to ‘rise up, to revolution.’” Vincent went on to say that the USPCR received $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
  6349.  
  6350. Soros has a long history of funding anti-Israel causes. In 2007, the leftist billionaire made an absurd comment about the terrorist group, saying that America and Israel “must open the door to Hamas.” Soros also gave $525,000 to Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) between 2017 and 2022 and $350,000 to JVP Action. 
  6351.  
  6352. Recently, Soros-funded anti-Israel groups JVP and MPower Change organized protests of a deal between Google and the Israeli government. During the same month, Soros-funded groups mounted a campaign to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces, as Israel battles Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.  
  6353.  
  6354. SEE MORE: Fox Business Host Maria Bartiromo on Soros-funded groups training anti-Israel activists
  6355.  
  6356. Soros did not react well to the exposé. In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), the Open Society Foundations accused the New York Post of continuing “its practice of mixing distortion and unsubstantiated insinuations in attacking George and Alex Soros and the Open Society Foundations.”
  6357.  
  6358. Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report on Soros’s funding of anti-Israel causes.</description>
  6359.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 12:24 PM</pubDate>
  6360.    <dc:creator>Tom Olohan</dc:creator>
  6361.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283942</guid>
  6362.    </item>
  6363. <item>
  6364.  <title>NPR Cheers Pro-Hamas Campus Agitators: 'Getting Closer to Their Demands?’</title>
  6365.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2024/04/29/npr-cheers-pro-hamas-campus-agitators-getting-closer-their-demands</link>
  6366.  <description> National Public Radio’s coverage of the anti-Israel agitators who’ve taken over progressive college campuses while spouting violent rhetoric at Jewish students has been no better than its tax-funded partner PBS (both outlets reside under the taxpayer-supported auspices of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.)
  6367.  
  6368. NPR’s Friday coverage flattered the protesters, suggesting they were laser-focused on concrete demands that their respective colleges cease financing Israel, while ignoring their vocal support for Hamas terrorists, demonstrated by praising the October 7 massacre of Israelis and reciting eliminationist chants like “From the river to the sea.”
  6369.  
  6370. Friday’s Morning Edition program aired “Protests against the war in Gaza intensify at Columbia and other universities” without a single mention of the despicable rhetoric from the protests, nothing about the ongoing anti-Semitic ranting and toddler-like tactics when confronted by police, only enthusiasm for the alleged success of the protests. Here’s your tax dollars at work, producing bias by omission:
  6371.  
  6372.  
  6373. A MARTINEZ, co-host: It's been a week since Columbia University called in the police to clear an encampment of anti-war protesters on a campus lawn. And what a week it's been.
  6374.  
  6375. LEILA FADEL, co-host: More than a hundred students were arrested that day. And since then, the student demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza have only intensified. They spread to universities across the country and led to hundreds more arrests.
  6376.  
  6377.  
  6378. Adrian Florido reported from New York: "For days, protest leaders and university officials have been in negotiations over the encampment's future. The university wants it gone, but the hundreds of students in the camp say they're staying put until their demands are met."
  6379.  
  6380. Martinez took the protesters seriously: Now, you mentioned that the students are refusing to clear the encampment until their demands are met. What are those demands?
  6381.  
  6382. Florido sounded empathetic: The big one is divestment. They want Columbia to sell off the stock it owns in companies that do business in Israel and that, the protesters say, are enabling Israel's war in Gaza and its operations in the West Bank." He featured a soundbite from grad student and organizer Ray Guerrero, "who says that if Columbia pulls its money from these companies, other institutions might follow. And that could bring pressure to bear on the Israeli government.…."
  6383.  
  6384. Martinez asked how the protests would affect graduation ceremonies.
  6385.  
  6386.  
  6387. ADRIAN FLORIDO: Well, here at Columbia, the encampment is smack in the center of where the school holds its main graduation ceremony. And in fact, all around the encampment, workers are already basically putting up the stages and scaffolding for that event. It's part of why protesters suspect they're about to be removed by force. At USC, the main graduation ceremony has been canceled. And that could happen at other schools because these students showing up to protest say they're not going anywhere.
  6388.  
  6389.  
  6390. No concern was voiced over the hate chanters ruining a milestone event for those students (suckers) who attend college for the education – cruelly, many of whom also missed out on high school graduation in 2020 because of COVID restrictions. That's one human-interest angle NPR chose to ignore.
  6391.  
  6392. Note: This story was also included on “Up First.”  a popular NPR podcast delivering brief daily highlights of NPR’s coverage, and introduced there in the most supportive fashion imaginable: “As protests and arrests continue at college campuses across the U.S., are the students calling for divestment in Israel getting closer to their demands?”</description>
  6393.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 11:36 AM</pubDate>
  6394.    <dc:creator>Clay Waters</dc:creator>
  6395.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283939</guid>
  6396.    </item>
  6397. <item>
  6398.  <title>Scarborough Scolds: College Administrator Failure To Quell Protests Could Elect Trump!</title>
  6399.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2024/04/29/scarborough-scolds-college-administrator-failure-quell</link>
  6400.  <description> Joe Scarborough started today's Morning Joe with a rant against weak college administrators who are failing to put down pro-Hamas campus protests.
  6401.  
  6402. Scarborough's central beef was that their fecklessness could lead to . . . the election of Donald Trump!
  6403. Scarborough analogized today's situation to that of the student protests of the 1960s that led to the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 and "five more years of war." As if "Happy Warrior" Hubert Humphrey would have ended the Vietnam war more quickly?
  6404. And in a bit of ultimate scaremongering, Scarborough dropped the usual End of Democracy bomb: "Let's see if they're now going to elect Donald Trump for, I don't know, maybe the last election in American history. If so, good job. Way to go. Way to go!" 
  6405.  
  6406.  
  6407.  
  6408.  
  6409.  
  6410. Does Scarborough seriously believe that?
  6411. And was Scarborough's rather authoritarian rant about the need for college administrators to enforce discipline and rules, or else "leave!", sincere? Or was it simply the reflection of his partisan angst that the campus turmoil could lead to the defeat of his phone buddy, Joe Biden?
  6412.  
  6413. Here's the transcript.
  6414.  
  6415.  
  6416. MSNBC
  6417. Morning Joe
  6418. 4/29/24
  6419. 6:03 am EDT
  6420.  
  6421. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Also ahead, the latest on the protests over Gaza that are spreading to more and more college campuses.
  6422.  
  6423. And, we're going to have an exclusive, first look at Forbes' list of the new Ivies, universities who are poised to replace the elite institutions, in part because of their handling of the protest. It is a much bigger story.
  6424.  
  6425. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Even before, even before these protests.
  6426.  
  6427. MIKA: This is a trend.
  6428.  
  6429. SCARBOROUGH: And I've got to say, just the absolute weakness of the administration, the cowardice of the administration, and, unfortunately, on these elite colleges, having people that are now running these elite colleges on faculty boards that, that, that burned down college campuses in the 1960s, that were responsible for the election in part of Richard Nixon in 1968 because of the chaos on college campuses, because of the chaos in Chicago. 
  6430.  
  6431. And they gave America Richard Nixon and five more years of war. Good job. Let's see if these administrators, the ones that, like, tried to levitate the Pentagon in the 1960s with Abbie Hoffman. The ones who took over presidents' offices in the 1960s, that, that trashed college campuses. Let's see if they're now going to elect Donald Trump for, I don't know, maybe the last election in American history. If so, good job. Way to go. Way to go, by not being able to discipline students that violate your rules. You either have rules or you don't have rules. You either have standards or you don't have standards. And if you can't live by them, leave! 
  6432.  
  6433. And let's get some adults in these universities that actually teach students that there are consequences when they break the rules, when they break the laws, and when they spout genocidal chants over and over again.
  6434. </description>
  6435.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 11:15 AM</pubDate>
  6436.    <dc:creator>Mark Finkelstein</dc:creator>
  6437.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283940</guid>
  6438.    </item>
  6439. <item>
  6440.  <title>Church Volunteer Accused of Sexual Assault of 15-Year-Old</title>
  6441.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/tierin-rose-mandelburg/2024/04/29/church-volunteer-accused-sexual-assault-15-year-old</link>
  6442.  <description>
  6443.  
  6444. An Arkansas teacher was arrested Wednesday for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy she met at a church beginning in 2020. 
  6445.  
  6446. Reagan Gray, a volunteer at the Immanuel Baptist Church, allegedly sent nude photos to the young boy after hunting down his cell number on the church’s WhatsApp group.
  6447.  
  6448. Gray, 26, was a teacher at the Little Rock Christian Academy and volunteered at the Immanuel Baptist Church. The boy didn’t attend the school, but was part of the church's student ministry where Gray volunteered.
  6449.  
  6450. According to local news THV11, the child’s parents discovered text messages on their son's phone in 2020. They told the senior pastor about the abuse and he had Gray removed from the student ministry and required her to undergo counseling from the church. At the time, Gray maintained that her relationship with the boy wasn't "physical." 
  6451.  
  6452. That didn’t last long. According to the same report, Gray returned to the ministry and continued pursuing the relationship with the boy, which she later confessed was “sexual in nature.”
  6453.  
  6454. According to local news KARK, the boy and Gray met in her car and apartment. She allegedly sent nude photos to him daily and expected some to be sent in return. Mirror reported that Gray performed oral sex on the boy but did not have intercourse with him “in order for [him] to stay pure.”
  6455.  
  6456. Gray was charged with a single felony count of sexual assault of a teenager after turning herself in to Little Rock police this month. She was released on a $20,000 bond and her court date is set for June 17.
  6457.  
  6458. Oddly enough, former president Bill Clinton had once praised the church where Gray and her victim met. Back in 1993, Clinton, who was born in Arkansas and lived for a time in Little Rock, tearfully thanked the congregation just days before starting his first term as president.
  6459.  
  6460. Related: Calif. Teacher Pleads No-Contest to Raping 14-Year-Old Student
  6461.  
  6462. “Were it not for this church…I believe it would be virtually impossible (that) I would be going to Washington next week as president. And I am absolutely certain I would be less prepared for the job,” Clinton told parishioners at the time. 
  6463.  
  6464. Hate to say it but, with a man like Bill Clinton praising a congregation for his campaign success given his second term's...er...less-than-"happy" ending, it’s not surprising that another alleged sexual abuser just cropped up in the same circle.
  6465.  
  6466. Follow us on Twitter/X:
  6467.  
  6468.  
  6469. MRCTV's @Schineman joins @AlisonOAN to talk John Legend &amp; Hillary Clinton being drug out by the media to bash Trump. pic.twitter.com/YvSKUOmEAm
  6470. — MRCTV (@mrctv) April 25, 2024</description>
  6471.  <pubDate>April 29th, 2024 10:35 AM</pubDate>
  6472.    <dc:creator>Tierin-Rose Mandelburg</dc:creator>
  6473.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283941</guid>
  6474.    </item>
  6475. <item>
  6476.  <title>Are Journalists 'Anti-Authoritarian' as They Seek to Banish Conservative Views?</title>
  6477.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/28/are-journalists-anti-authoritarian-they-seek-banish-conservative</link>
  6478.  <description> On Friday, Associated Press media reporter David Bauder looked at recent internal newsroom debates that went public, "Journalists taking the critical gaze they deploy to cover the world and turning it inward at their own employers." He cited Uri Berliner's essay on NPR, NBC dumping RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, and a fight at The New York Times over a story on sexual assault by Hamas. 
  6479.  
  6480.  
  6481. Journalism as a profession attracts people who are anti-authoritarian, who see themselves as truth-tellers. Many believe the way to make an organization better is by criticizing it, said Tom Rosenstiel, co-author of The Elements of Journalism and a professor at the University of Maryland.
  6482.  
  6483. “We’re taught to hold power to account,” said Kate O’Brian, president of news for the E.W. Scripps Co.
  6484.  
  6485.  
  6486. There's one difference in these controversies: Berliner was basically forced out for exposing the Left. The other controversies were the Left enforcing their wokeness. Bauder summarized that "NPR management says he is wrong. But Berliner quickly became a hero among conservatives who hold the same belief." The AP reporter doesn't identify most of the rebels in these controversies as leftists enforcing a new ideological hard line (that Berliner was protesting): 
  6487.  
  6488.  
  6489. A generational change also has emboldened many young journalists. In his own classroom, Kaplan sees more young journalists questioning traditional notions of objectivity that keep them from expressing opinions. Many believe they have the right to state their beliefs and support causes, he said.
  6490.  
  6491. “Now you have journalists that are advocates,” Rosenstiel said. “That reflects something of a culture war that is happening inside of journalism.”
  6492.  
  6493. Debates over coverage of the Trump administration had a similar galvanizing effect.
  6494.  
  6495. “There are some journalists who say, ‘I’m not interested in covering conservatives because they are not interested in the truth,’” Rosenstiel said.
  6496.  
  6497.  
  6498. See? There it is. The Woke Left doesn't believe in debates. They call it "bothsidesism" and insist debates be shut down, that contrary opinions somehow make "marginalized" people feel "unsafe." Are these journalists "anti-authoritarian" when they only want one side to be published? They clearly believe conservatives should become the "marginalized," now and forever.
  6499.  
  6500. This was what happened when New York Times staffers had a fit over their newspaper posting an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton on using National Guard troops to suppress violent rioting. 
  6501.  
  6502.  
  6503. One of the most prominent thinkers on this issue, [leftist] journalist Wesley Lowery, has written that some defenders of objectivity are more interested in inoffensiveness and appearance, less so on journalistic rigor.
  6504.  
  6505. “In pursuing objectivity, we silence the marginalized,” a Harvard student, Ajay V. Singh, wrote at the height of the debate. “In silencing the marginalized, we tip the narrative of ‘truth’ into the hands of the powerful.”
  6506.  
  6507.  
  6508. The logic there is bizarre: quote conservatives, and you "silence" someone else? Wesley Lowery wrote a book with a conspiracy-theory title, They Can't Kill Us All. In Lowery's world, he thinks no one should be allowed to protest they don't want him dead, they just oppose his paranoid views. When you represent "racial justice," then you can intimidate journalists out of quoting the "anti-justice" side.</description>
  6509.  <pubDate>April 28th, 2024 10:46 PM</pubDate>
  6510.    <dc:creator>Tim Graham</dc:creator>
  6511.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283938</guid>
  6512.    </item>
  6513. <item>
  6514.  <title>REVISIONIST HISTORY: CBS Sunday Morning Sugarcoats Dan Rather’s Legacy</title>
  6515.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/04/28/revisionist-history-cbs-sunday-morning-sugarcoats-dan-rathers</link>
  6516.  <description>On CBS This Morning, correspondent Lee Cowan ran a lifetime achievement profile of disgraced anchor Dan Rather that seemed weirdly valedictory. But the profile omitted the most significant detail of Rather’s legacy at CBS.
  6517.  
  6518. Watch as Cowan and Rather whitewash the document controversy that led to Rather’s downfall at CBS, and established him as the father of Fake News- as aired on CBS Sunday Morning on Sunday, April 28th, 2024 (click “expand”):
  6519.  
  6520.  
  6521.  
  6522.  
  6523.  
  6524.  
  6525. DAN RATHER: Dan Rather, CBS News, became sort of all part of my name. A part of my identity.
  6526.  
  6527. LEE COWAN: And you have interviewed how many presidents?
  6528.  
  6529. RATHER: I'd have to count. Every one since Truman.
  6530.  
  6531. COWAN: Gosh!
  6532.  
  6533. This is the first time he has appeared on this network since.
  6534.  
  6535. RATHER: Without apology or explanation. I miss CBS. I’ve missed it since the day I left there.
  6536.  
  6537. COWAN: Even at 92, how and why he left still stings.
  6538.  
  6539. RATHER: In the heart of every reporter worthy of the name, Lee, there is a message that news, real news, is what somebody somewhere, particularly somebody in power, doesn't want you to know. That's news.
  6540.  
  6541. COWAN: And that's what got him into trouble.
  6542.  
  6543. TOM BROKAW: NBC News in depth tonight, the black eye at CBS News. Today, CBS News anchor Dan Rather and the news division…
  6544.  
  6545. COWAN: In 2004, Rather filed a report for 60 Minutes 2 that questioned George W. Bush's service record in the Texas Air National Guard.
  6546.  
  6547. RATHER: Tonight, we have new documents and new information on the president's military service…
  6548.  
  6549. COWAN: But the documents on which Rather and his producer based their reporting could not be later authenticated.
  6550.  
  6551. RATHER: It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also, I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.
  6552.  
  6553. COWAN: Was that the lowest point for you, you think?
  6554.  
  6555. RATHER: Of course it was the lowest point. I gave CBS News everything I had. They had smarter, better, more talented people, but they didn't have anybody who worked any harder than I did.
  6556.  
  6557. CBS’s Lee Cowan tells us one firehouse within sight of Ground Zero has had its heart cut out.
  6558.  
  6559. COWAN: I’d only been at CBS a few years by then, during which Dan Rather had kindly and unexpectedly taken me under his wing and made me feel welcome. 
  6560.  
  6561. You told me once it's not the question, but it's the follow-up. That that's…
  6562.  
  6563. RATHER: Yes. Well, that’s true.
  6564.  
  6565. COWAN: That's more important?
  6566.  
  6567. RATHER: I hope you’ll not be following up today.
  6568.  
  6569. COWAN: Minus the suspenders and his cigars, Rather remains just as I remember him. An intently curious…
  6570.  
  6571. RATHER: I'll ring you back in about ten. Thanks.
  6572.  
  6573. COWAN: Thoughtful, well-read skeptic who wants nothing more than to wear out his shoe leather chasing the next headline.  
  6574.  
  6575.  
  6576. Cowan does his level best to retcon Rathergate into an authentication problem. But the MRC remembers. As Rich Noyes noted:
  6577.  
  6578.  
  6579. Just eight weeks before election day, in a September 8, 2004 report on 60 Minutes, Rather claimed “new” evidence showing Bush received “preferential treatment” during his Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard.
  6580.  
  6581. “Newly discovered documents spark new questions,” Rather hyped that night on his CBS Evening News. “CBS News has exclusive information, including documents, that now sheds new light on the President’s service record.”
  6582.  
  6583. The documents in question were supposedly from Bush’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, typed on his office typewriter decades before computers and word processors became common in the workplace. It didn’t take long before observers on the Internet highlighted how the “newly discovered documents” looked more like something whipped up in Microsoft Word using the default Times Roman font than on an early 1970s typewriter.
  6584.  
  6585.  
  6586. It wasn’t an authentication problem but a forgery. A forgery in service of a cheap hit job eight weeks before Election Day, back when there was still such a thing as Election Day. 
  6587.  
  6588. Rathergate ended up being a seminal moment inasmuch as what was then known as “new media” confronted and exposed blatant news, and took down a heretofore unassailable mainstream media giant. 
  6589.  
  6590. Cowan and CBS ignore that discrepancy in order to accommodate their valedictory item. Such a blatant omission of history is as much of a fakery as was Rathergate, which is Rather’s ultimate legacy. No matter how hard CBS and Cowan try to spin otherwise.
  6591.  
  6592.  </description>
  6593.  <pubDate>April 28th, 2024 9:31 PM</pubDate>
  6594.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  6595.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283937</guid>
  6596.    </item>
  6597. <item>
  6598.  <title>HYSTERICAL: Stephanopoulos Opens ‘This Week' With ‘Stakes’ Editorial</title>
  6599.  <link>https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2024/04/28/hysterical-stephanopoulos-opens-week-stakes-editorial</link>
  6600.  <description>ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos opened today’s broadcast with an editorial that can most charitably be described as hysterical, as he pontificates over “what’s at stake” in the 2024 presidential election, and how that colors his coverage of the election.
  6601.  
  6602. Watch the opening editorial in its entirety as aired on ABC This Week on Sunday, April 28th, 2024:
  6603.  
  6604.  
  6605.  
  6606.  
  6607.  
  6608.  
  6609. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning, and welcome to This Week. Until now, no American president had ever faced a criminal trial. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election, or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime. No American president ever faced hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments for business fraud, defamation and sexual abuse. Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined on what's happening in courtrooms than what is happening on the campaign trail. Until now. The scale of the abnormality is so staggering that it can actually become numbing. It's all too easy to fall into reflective habits- to treat this as a normal campaign where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But that is not what's happening this election year. Those bedrock tenets of our democracy are being tested in a way we haven't seen since the Civil War. It's a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.
  6610.  
  6611.  
  6612. It appears that Stephanopoulos took President Joe Biden’s Nerd Prom speech to heart, followed Biden’s call, and chose to Regime harder. The program did not lead with polls, or scandals, or foreign policy matters, but with “what’s at stake”. 
  6613.  
  6614. In a sense, Stephanopoulos isn’t wrong. This is a unique time inasmuch as no American president had ever had elements of state and federal offenses Frankensteined into felony charges against him.  No American president has ever been prosecuted by his successor. No American president has ever left the border as wide open as has the current officeholder. And this is all happening against the backdrop of Americans having their government weaponized against them, such as pro-life activist Mark Houck, among many others.
  6615.  
  6616. But Stephanopoulos doesn’t address those unique historical circumstances. They are not favorable to the reelection of Joe Biden and, therefore, are insufficiently cognizant of “what is at stake”. The Title “Regime Media” is well earned.
  6617.  
  6618.  </description>
  6619.  <pubDate>April 28th, 2024 6:50 PM</pubDate>
  6620.    <dc:creator>Jorge Bonilla</dc:creator>
  6621.    <guid isPermaLink="false">283936</guid>
  6622.    </item>
  6623.  
  6624.  </channel>
  6625. </rss>
  6626.  

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