Commentary Culture Investigations

MS NOW host and congressional correspondent Ali Vitali wondered outside the bubble on Friday to join HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher and Free Press contributor Coleman Hughes in recapping Tuesday’s midterm election results, which included some discussion about the media’s role in election coverage. During the regular show, Vitali would defend media fearmongering about the administration sending ICE agents to polling places, and during the post-show Overtime segment, tried to portray MS NOW as a balanced network with “a range of perspective.”Hughes was criticizing pre-election media hysteria when he declared, “Not only a shout-out to the Founding Fathers but a bit of a poo-poo on the media that’s constantly trying to terrify us in order to get us to click on whatever the latest, yes, threat to democracy. Okay, challenge right? But when you see that there’s a challenge in democracy, that doesn’t mean democracy is over. That doesn’t mean it’s Weimar Germany, right? And a lot of us have been taken by this the past few years, and what’s good about this election is that actually this system works.” MS NOW host/congressional correspondent Ali Vitali defends the media’s doomsday prophesying, “It’s not fearmongering. It is listening to what the then outgoing, now current president of the United States said and did, and reacting to that in a serious way that does not tell… pic.twitter.com/2JsLi0agkk— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 7, 2026 Vitali defended the media by proclaiming, “Except for the fact — it’s beautiful that the system works. I cover campaigns for a living because there is something so amazing about watching democracy in action and I love when voters teach us something. And also after January 6, 2021, I do not think we can take our democracy for granted. It’s not fearmongering.”She insisted that the industry was simply listening to what the administration was saying, “It is listening to what the then outgoing, now current president of the United States said and did, and reacting to that in a serious way that does not tell people ‘be afraid to vote.’ Certainly that was not the message I would give to people who watch my show when I was on MS NOW, anywhere. But, it’s ‘be vigilant about it. Take it seriously. Know it’s your right and that it’s not the federal government who can send ICE to a polling place or tell you that election results are invalid,’ and that’s the lesson of January 6th.”Except, by her own standard, the media failed. The administration repeatedly denied that ICE agents would be patrolling polling places looking for illegal immigrants. They held out the possibility for a narrow hypothetical where an illegal immigrant would be known to be at a polling location, but Democrats and the media interrupted that to mean the administration was trying to intimidate Latino voters into not voting. Later, during the Overtime segment, BIll Maher and Coleman Hughes were talking about the DSA and education when Maher said, “I think spending $50,000 per year per student, it’s not money. That’s what you always hear from the left. ‘Oh, it’s underfunded.’ It’s not the funding. The… pic.twitter.com/OdRqlJdpTB— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) November 7, 2026 Later, during the Overtime segment, Maher and Hughes were arguing that the DSA’s electoral rise represents a failure of the public education system. To that end, they also pointed to a recent essay by 1619 Project creator Nicole Hannah Jones where she decided to send her daughter to a public school. Maher recalled, “And I think in this school, where they were learning nothing with no supervision and absentee principals and teachers. I think spending $50,000 per year per student, it’s not money. That’s what you always hear from the left. ‘Oh, it’s underfunded.’ It’s not the funding. The funding isn’t the issue.”Turning to Vitali, Maher asserted, “And I think this is the kind of thing I will never hear on MS NOW.”Vitali tried to defend her colleagues, but it wasn’t convincing, “I think you hear a lot of perspectives on MS NOW. As the person who has interviewed everyone from Speaker Johnson to prominent Democrats. I can promise you there’s a range of perspective.”By “a lot of perspectives,” Vitali means the university-like spectrum of left to far-left. Vitali is also the 5 a.m. host. If her interviewing Mike Johnson 13 months ago when MS NOW was still MSNBC is the best Vitali can come up with, then Maher is right about the network’s deep echo chamber.Here is a transcript for the November 6 show:HBO Real Time with Bill Maher11/6/202610:23 PM ETCOLEMAN HUGHES: Not only a shout-out to the Founding Fathers but a bit of a poo-poo on the media that’s constantly trying to terrify us—BILL MAHER: Yeah.HUGHES: — in order to get us to click on whatever the latest, yes, threat to democracy. Okay, challenge right? But when you see that there’s a challenge in democracy, that doesn’t mean democracy is over. That doesn’t mean it’s Weimar Germany, right? And a lot of us have been taken by this the past few years, and what’s good about this election is that actually this system works.ALI VITALI: Except for the fact — it’s beautiful that the system works. I cover campaigns for a living because there is something so amazing about watching democracy in action—MAHER: Yeah.VITALI: — and I love when voters teach us something. And also after January 6, 2021, I do not think we can take our democracy for granted. It’s not fearmongering. It is listening to what—MAHER: Right.VITALI: — the then outgoing, now current president of the United States said and did, and reacting to that in a serious way that does not tell people “be afraid to vote.” Certainly that was not the message I would give to people who watch my show when I was on MS NOW, anywhere. But, it’s be vigilant about it. Take it seriously. Know it’s your right and that it’s not the federal government who can send ICE to a polling place or tell you that election results are invalid,” and that’s the lesson of January 6th.***HBO Real Time with Bill Maher Overtime11/6/2026BILL MAHER: And I think in this school, where they were learning nothing with no supervision and absentee principals and teachers.COLEMAN HUGHES: Yeah.MAHER: I think spending $50,000 per year per student, it’s not money. That’s what you always hear from the left. “Oh, it’s underfunded.” It’s not the funding. The funding isn’t the issue. And—HUGHES: No, it hasn’t been for a very long time.MAHER: I think this is the kind of thing I will never hear on MS NOW.ALI VITALI: I think you hear a lot of perspectives on MS NOW.MAHER: I don’t think I ever hear that one.VITALI: As the person who has interviewed everyone from Speaker Johnson to prominent Democrats. I can promise you there’s a range of perspective.

Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica Bitter energy drinks turned out to be ChatGPT-steered poisoning, lawsuit says.

Thomas Catenacci, WFB A class action lawsuit filed this week accuses the Foundation to Promote Open Society, the central cog in billionaire liberal donor George Soros’s behemoth nonprofit…

Maggie Phillips, Tablet

The secular liberal media has often portrayed Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) as a moderate Democrat, but that’s not at all what she actually is. Pro-lifers were saddened that Virginia voters approved the Abby-endorsed Question 1, which created a Roe vs. Wade-style abortion-on-demand policy in the state. It won by 25 points. 

Screenshot from Snopes.com

Naturally, the so-called “independent fact-checkers” pulled out the “False” card when anyone insists that this means “abortion up until birth” because they claim that leaving it up to a woman and her carefully selected doctor is somehow a third-term “restriction.”At Snopes.com, Jack Izzo was the latest pro-abortion enabler, under the headline “Did Virginia legalize abortion up to birth? Claim misrepresents Question 1.”Collin Rugg’s tweet was the flagged offender of so-called Falsehood, since he dared to argue it allowed “the abortion of babies who are minutes from being born.” It’s “False” even though Rugg underlines that third-trimester abortion is available if a “single doctor” determines the unborn baby is a “mental health” problem.NEW: Virginia voters vote to allow the abortion of babies who are minutes from being born, as long as a single doctor deems the mother’s “mental health” needs saving. The constitutional amendment will establish permanent protections for abortions. Women will be able to kill a fully formed baby in the womb in the third trimester as long as a single doctor determines it is necessary to save the life or physical or “mental health” of the mother, according to CBS. A Pew Research study found that over 50% of liberal white women under 30 have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Horrific.— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 4, 2026 Snopes linked to Ballotpedia, which laid out a very broad right to abortion: Question 1 amended the Virginia Constitution to establish the right to reproductive freedom. Question 1 defined this as “the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”[1]Question 1 provided that this right could not be infringed upon unless justified by a compelling state interest.[1]Question 1 allowed the state to regulate abortion for women in the third trimester of pregnancy, but prohibited the state from prohibiting abortions if the fetus/baby was not viable or a physician determined an abortion was necessary to protect the life, mental health, or physical health of the mother.As the abortion-backing “fact checkers” typically do, this is “False” because third-trimester abortions are rare. This makes as much sense as claiming that if you made it legal to have sex with a horse, you haven’t actually made it legal because it rarely happens. But they claim pro-lifers are making a “strawman argument.”The strawman argumentThe misleading posts do not mention how far into their pregnancies women generally receive abortions. That’s because the language of the claim relies on the idea that late-term abortions are a common practice, while the medical data shows they are quite uncommon. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the premier professional association for OB/GYNs in the U.S., less than 1% of abortions in the country are performed in the third trimester, and about 1% of abortions are performed after the woman has reached 21 weeks of pregnancy. ACOG, obviously, is pro-abortion, and Snopes also cited as their experts “reproductive healthcare nonprofit Planned Parenthood” and their affiliated Alan Guttmacher Institute.Izzo, who’s touted at the bottom of the post as a “two-time Jeopardy alumnus,” tried to claim that killing an unborn baby is a “do no harm” matter: To put it another way, doctors, who take an oath to do no harm, perform late-term abortions because the baby is “life-limiting,” the mother may not survive the pregnancy or the mother couldn’t have the procedure earlier, even if she wanted to. Oh, there’s absolutely some “life-limiting” going on in an abortion, and it’s not about the mother. 

Shannon Osaka, Wash Post A new study finds that data centers have had only a marginal impact on residential electricity prices.

Derek VanBuskirk, Daily Caller Christians in Indonesia face a pattern of threats and protests as radical Islamists weaponize bureaucratic red tape to stop the worship of Christ.

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, Daily Signal

Peter Loftus, Wall Street Journal

Photo Credit:Image via Picryl.

PicrylBy J.B. ShurkDefeats often turn into victories.