Newsbusters

Amazing.

One can easily imagine that the headline writers at the conservative leaning New York Post were laughing as they wrote the following headline about the lefty Washington Post. The headline: 

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos overhauls left-leaning paper’s opinion pages to focus on ‘personal liberties and free markets’ — leading section’s editor to quit

Then, in the middle of all the chaos around the uproar surrounding the Trump-Zelensky Oval Office meeting that was televised live and in living color – with President Trump warning Zelensky that he was “gambling with World War III”- the Washington Post found itself in the middle of its own dustup. A meltdown.

A meltdown over, of all things, its Opinion Pages. While there has been an ongoing saga about the Washington paper’s internals since the liberal paper’s staff went crazy over Bezos’s decision to not endorse Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 showdown with Trump, things have heated up even more as a result of the latest missive from owner Bezos.

Posted on X, the Bezos posting reads in part: 

I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning:

I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. 

We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.

And with that, all you-know-what-double L broke loose inside the Post. CNN headlined: 

Washington Post staffers are in open rebellion against Jeff Bezos

This jewel of a story reported this – with bold print for emphasis supplied:

CNN  — Current and former Washington Post staffers are rebelling against Jeff Bezos after he announced a “significant” editorial shift that will see the paper’s Opinion section focus almost exclusively on personal liberties and free markets.

…The Bezos announcement sent shockwaves through the Post, alarming current and former staffers alike.

Marty Baron, the Post’s revered former executive editor under whom the outlet won 11 Pulitzer Prizes, told CNN in a statement that Bezos has ironically undermined personal liberties by “cravenly yielding to a president who shows no respect for liberty,” writing that the billionaire — whose holdings also include a sizeable chunk of Amazon and space technology company Blue Origin — “has prioritized those commercial interests over The Post, and he is betraying The Post’s longstanding principles to do so.

Got that? “Current and former Washington Post staffers” were rebelling against new owner Jeff Bezos because Bezos was “betraying The Post’s longstanding principles” by “cravenly yielding to a president who shows no respect for liberty.” Bezos has the nerve….the nerve! – to want to publish Opinion pieces that are supportive of “personal liberties and free markets.”

Say what? 

Recall that the Post was a staunch supporter of President Obama, the self-same President Obama featured in this headline of the day over at The Week: 

Why did the Obama administration spy on the Associated Press?

The Justice Department collected two months’ worth of reporters’ phone records

Then there was another headline, this one in, of all places, The New York Times: 

Under Obama, a Chill on Press Freedom 

This gem reported: 

This administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers for leaks and gone after more journalists than any of its predecessors.

Now there’s a President “who shows no respect for liberty”. And guess what? Not a peep from Post staffers about Obama’s “Chill on Press Freedom.”

Stories of this nature are well out there in the media/Google universe. Yet with that as hard fact, Washington Post staffers are rebelling now because new owner Jeff Bezos says of columns to be published on the Op-Ed pages of The Post: 

We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.

Really? Seriously?

And then there is the Post reporters’ outrage at the alleged relationship between publisher Bezos and President Trump?

Clearly they are ignorant (deliberately?) of the history of their very own Washington Post. That would be the self-same Washington Post whose publisher of the day – Philip Graham – played a pivotal role in getting Graham friend and Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson placed on the 1960 Democratic ticket as Senator John F. Kennedy’s vice presidential running mate. Talk about friendship!

History counts. And the history of Post leaders with names like owner Phil Graham, wife Katherine Graham and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee — close friends and influencers all the way around with the leaders of the Kennedy-Johnson era — are way too late to erase or pretend they never existed.

To now suddenly pretend that current owner Jeff Bezos has some sort of illegitimate relationship with President Trump is laughable on its face. 

All of this “Sturm und Drang” (storm and stress) from Post staffers over the Trump-Bezos relationship is laughable on its face.

And, in an excursion into a building utterly lacking self-awareness, this meltdown makes Post staffers look silly if not so seriously biased that they are by definition unable to do their jobs of producing straight-arrow just-the-facts journalism.

If that was ever the goal.

CBS Saturday Morning was not happy at Iowa for daring to pass a law that insists that an individual’s sex is immutable. Additionally, the Hawkeye State’s decision was said to be a “civil rights reversal” as it removed “civil rights protections for transgender people.”

Guest co-host Errol Barnett began, “We begin this half hour with a civil rights reversal. Iowa’s now the first state to remove civil rights protections for transgender people. Governor Kim Reynolds signed that bill Friday, just one week after it was introduced in the state legislature. As Lana Zak reports, the law, which takes effect July 1st, is already facing pushback.”

 

 

Zak began her report, which also aired the previous night on the CBS Evening News Plus streaming show, by hyping, “The unprecedented act sparked outrage as lawmakers debated hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the rotunda of the Iowa state capitol.”

Zak then teed up, “Representative Aime Wichtendahl, the state’s first openly transgender member,” who “argued this is just the start.”

Moving on to Gov. Kim Reynolds, Zak continued, “Republican lawmakers fast-tracked the bill, and Governor Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law yesterday.”

In a split soundbite, Reynolds was first shown declaring, “It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women.”

Zak reported how, “It defines sex based on a person’s anatomy at birth, and it removes gender identity from the state’s civil rights law, which protected specific groups from discrimination. Gender identity was added alongside sexual orientation back in 2007.”

Reynolds was then shown again, insisting that, “Before I signed this bill, the civil rights code blurred the biological line between the sexes. [Jump cut] What this bill does accomplish is to strengthen protections for women and girls.”

That was a point that should’ve been explored further. There is an obvious contradiction between laws that mandate equal access to school sports and then allowing anyone who claims to be a woman to join a women’s sports team. The fact that CBS would rather pretend such contradictions don’t exist is not proof that they aren’t real, as Zak continued, “Max Mowitz is director of the advocacy group One Iowa. Mowitz says the move ends nearly two decades of state law protections for transgender Iowans like himself.”

Zak then wondered, “Why is this happening now?”

Mowitz had the generally unimpressive answer of conservatives just hate people, “I can’t understand what the timing would be other than a large, widespread national trend toward transphobia and hostility toward the LGBTQ community. It’s more acceptable to single us out and harm us.”

Still, Zak followed up, “Are you worried about real harm?”

Mowitz added, “Absolutely. I know that this will just move the needle further. Are we going to continue to see really horrible legislation because this is the new norm?”

Elsewhere on Saturday, ABC’s deputy political director, Averi Harper, previewed President Donald Trump’s upcoming address to Congress with similar framing on Good Morning America, “But I think there’s going to be a victory lap of sorts here, particularly around President Trump’s cultural agenda. Things like the dismantling of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, deportations, curtailing of rights for trans people, those are issues that resonate with conservative circles, so we’re going to see him talk about that.”

Apparently, it is a reversal of rights to acknowledge what human beings across civilizations have known for thousands of years.

Here are transcripts for the March 1 shows:

CBS Saturday Morning

3/1/2025

8:30 AM ET

ERROL BARNETT: We begin this half hour with a civil rights reversal. Iowa’s now the first state to remove civil rights protections for transgender people. Governor Kim Reynolds signed that bill Friday, just one week after it was introduced in the state legislature. As Lana Zak reports, the law, which takes effect July 1st, is already facing pushback.

LANA ZAK: The unprecedented act sparked outrage—

[PROTESTORS CHANTING]

ZAK: — as lawmakers debated hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the rotunda of the Iowa state capitol to protest the law which eliminates civil rights protections based on gender identity.

WOMAN: I feel it’s mean. I feel it’s hateful.

ZAK: Representative Aime Wichtendahl, the state’s first openly transgender member, argued this is just the start.

AIME WICHTENDAHL: Vote this bill down today because this is not the end. Those think tanks will ask again and again and again to remove rights and freedoms in your fellow Iowans until none remain.

ZAK: Republican lawmakers fast-tracked the bill, and Governor Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law yesterday.

KIM REYNOLDS: It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women.

ZAK: It defines sex based on a person’s anatomy at birth, and it removes gender identity from the state’s civil rights law, which protected specific groups from discrimination. Gender identity was added alongside sexual orientation back in 2007.

REYNOLDS: Before I signed this bill, the civil rights code blurred the biological line between the sexes. [Jump cut] What this bill does accomplish is to strengthen protections for women and girls.

ZAK: Max Mowitz is director of the advocacy group One Iowa. Mowitz says the move ends nearly two decades of state law protections for transgender Iowans like himself.

Why is this happening now?

MAX MOWITZ: I can’t understand what the timing would be other than a large, widespread national trend toward transphobia and hostility toward the LGBTQ community. It’s more acceptable to single us out and harm us. 

ZAK: Are you worried about real harm?

MOWITZ: Absolutely. I know that this will just move the needle further. Are we going to continue to see really horrible legislation because this is the new norm?

***

ABC Good Morning America

3/1/2025

7:44 PM ET

AVERI HARPER: But I think there’s going to be a victory lap of sorts here, particularly around President Trump’s cultural agenda. Things like the dismantling of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, deportations, curtailing of rights for trans people, those are issues that resonate with conservative circles, so we’re going to see him talk about that.

Zachary Levi hasn’t been canceled by Hollywood for supporting President Donald Trump. Not yet, at least.

The star keeps saying he has new projects that should keep him busy. He’s one of the lucky ones.

Conservative actors are routinely punished for their beliefs. The New Blacklist is alive and well.

That doesn’t mean the “Shazam!” alum escaped professional punishment for his views. Select movie critics have weaponized his beliefs against him. It happened this weekend.

 

 

Indiewire’s review of Levi’s “The Unbreakable Boy” reads like a political screed, not a critical assessment. It’s also aggressively anti-religion, assuming few if any readers are people of faith.

The film casts Levi as the father of a boy who has both autism and brittle bone disease. The fact-based yarn hails from Lionsgate and was directed by Jon Gunn of “Ordinary Angels” fame.

It deserves a sober hearing. All films do.

Now, consider how Indiewire’s critic engages with the material. The review doesn’t start well, launching into a rant on separating the art from the artist.

It’s tough to accept Zachary Levi as the beleaguered father of an autistic child when the former “Shazam!” star has publicly sworn his allegiance to a man who believes that vaccines cause autism.

It gets worse.

In a perfect vacuum, it would be possible to imagine how Kingdom Story Company’s (“I Still Believe,” “Jesus Revolution,” etc.) latest appeal to megachurch America might serve as a flimsy source of comfort for some hypothetical couple who’s struggling to raise a child with intellectual differences — a struggle that will only get a whole lot harder if the administration Levi supports decides to eliminate the DOE, which could severely impact the learning opportunities available to the kids most at risk of being left behind.

This is a movie review, right, not a “guilt by association” jamboree or MSNBC op-ed? Later, the scribe refers to Levi’s “weirdly swole brand of smiling ignorance.”

It’s notable that Indiewire’s Facebook page let readers tee off on the critic’s unprofessional approach.

Harrison Boyd: This is such an immature and biased review. Yes, Zachary Levi supported Trump but that doesn’t mean he believes everything Trump does. Politics aren’t binary. Critique it on its quality not the degrees of separation from Trump. All I know is that as a father of an autistic son, this trailer brought me to tears.

John Bowen: Whether or not I agree with his politics or not doesn’t matter and nor should it for you to give us a non biased critique of the actual movie for which he is merely an actor in. This is dumb and unsubscribing from indiewire.

Aarón Acuña: Awful critique. It looks like Indie wire has no knowledge what an actor is. If you can’t separate an actor’s political views from the characters he/she portrays on screen you should not be writing about cinema, you should not be writing about anything, you should not write at all.

Andrew Boat: God, the writers at this publication are so insufferable and simply cannot disconnect personal politics from unrelated art. This take says more about YOU than this film.

Alex Kay: This critic makes me wonder if they would have written a review of SCREAM 6 without mentioning Melissa Barrera’s support for palestine in that same review

This critic isn’t alone.

The Hollywood Reporter’s review of “The Unbreakable Boy” features this aside.

Levi is a likable presence (at least onscreen — discuss among yourselves emphasis added), but he seems ill-equipped to handle his character’s darker aspects.

Would this critic say the same about Alec Baldwin, a star with a litany of terrible headlines trailing him before he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust.”

This reporter has listened to roughly a dozen recent interviews with Levi. He consistently comes off as kind, thoughtful and uplifting. We never know what an actor is truly like off-screen, but there’s little evidence that Levi is some sort of monster when the cameras stop rolling.

Just the opposite.

Now, let’s judge his screen work fairly and not hold his views against him. Readers deserve nothing less. The same applies to Levi and his cast mates.

If CNN’s Fareed Zakaria is the proverbial blind squirrel, then “terribly run” Democratic cities are his nut. On the Overtime segment of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Zakaria confronted former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempt to dodge Maher’s question of why the current mayor has an approval rating of 6.6 percent.

Maher simply wondered, “What’s going on in Chicago?”

Emanuel gave a long, rambling non-answer that first tried to say Chicago wasn’t alone, as if that made it better, “Look, I mean, this is, we were talking about this a little earlier. I mean, you have also, the mayor of New York not doing well, obviously other things also here in Los Angeles, not doing well, the mayor here. Look, and then you got mayors, like the mayor of San Francisco and other cities that are doing well.”

 

Bill Maher asks Rahm Emanuel why Chicago’s mayor has such a low approval rating, and the panel agrees that Democrat policies have ruined large American cities:
Bill Maher: “I read that the current mayor of Chicago has an approval rating of 6.6%. What’s going on in Chicago?”
Rahm… pic.twitter.com/Wn3rj5kQ9v
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) March 1, 2025
 

After conceding that having to lock everything at a Walgreens and CVS up was not a positive development, Emanuel tried to turn the tables and blame conservatives for having the wrong priorities:

I don’t wanna hear another word about the locker room. I don’t wanna hear another word about the bathroom. You better start focusing on the classroom… We had the worst reading, we had the worst reading scores for 8th graders in 30 years, and nobody, not a governor, not a mayor, not a president, not a secretary of Education is talking about it. We’re all wrapped up. Look, in 7th grade, if I had known that I could have said the word “they” and gotten in the girls’ bathroom, I would have done it. Okay, this is, we, we literally are a superpower. We’re facing off against China with 1.4 billion people, and two-thirds of our children can’t read eighth grade level. So no more about the left.

Zakaria tried to interject, “Wait a second.”

Emanuel, however, kept going, “I’m not on a roll for a second. No more, I don’t want to hear another… But I don’t wanna hear another word about the classroom. I don’t wanna hear another word about the bathroom until you tell me what you’re gonna do with the classroom. Enough.”

Zakaria then replied, “But I think, I think. To be fair, Rahm. This is… a huge Democratic Party problem. If you look at Democratic cities, they are terribly run. They have incredibly high taxes. It is impossible to build, so the cost of housing, let me finish, let me finish. I gave you your chance. The cost of housing is crazy in places like New York and Chicago.”

He further wondered what his taxes were getting him, “If you look at Democratic states, you know, look, you go to look at New York versus Florida. Okay, roughly the same population. The budget of New York State is twice that of Florida. What do they have? Streets paved with gold? I live in New York. I pay the highest taxes in New York. You get nothing for it, and I think that is the image people have of the Democratic Party. Lots of taxes, lots of regulation, but nothing gets done.”

To add one thing to Zakaria’s answer, it is not only that everything costs too much; it is also Emanuel’s attempt to dismiss “the locker room.” If society can’t even agree on who belongs in which locker room, then how can it reasonably expect to educate the next generation?

Here is a transcript for the February 28 show:

HBO Real Time with Bill Maher Overtime

2/28/2025

2 minutes, 42 seconds

BILL MAHER: What’s going on in Chicago? 

RAHM EMANUEL: Look, I mean, this is, we were talking about this a little  earlier.  I  mean, you have also, the mayor of New York not doing well, obviously other things also here in Los Angeles, not doing well, the mayor here. Look, and then you got mayors, like the mayor of San Francisco and other cities that are doing well. 

So, I would say, look, there is a general rule. I had this when I was mayor: safe streets, strong  schools, stable  finances.

Focus on those three things and your city’s gonna be fine. We’ve gone through five years where people became way too permissive as a culture. They were all, which is why everything’s locked up at Walgreens and CVS, and that is a disaster. And our school, and I’ll say this about our schools.

I don’t wanna hear another word about the locker room. I don’t wanna hear another word about the bathroom. You better start focusing on the classroom. I’m not, no, I’m–

MAHER: No, I agree.

EMANUEL: We had the worst reading, we had the worst reading scores for 8th graders in 30 years, and nobody, not a governor, not a mayor, not a president, not a secretary of Education is talking about it. We’re all wrapped up. Look, in 7th grade, if I had known that I could have said the word “they” and gotten in the girls’ bathroom, I would have done it. Okay, this is, we, we literally are a superpower. We’re facing off against China with 1.4 billion people, and two-thirds of our children can’t read eighth grade level. So no more about the left.

FAREED ZAKARIA: Wait a second.

EMANUEL:  I’m not on a roll for a second. No more, I don’t want to hear another—

MAHER: I gave him the light.

EMANUEL: But I don’t wanna hear another word about the classroom. I don’t wanna hear another word about the bathroom until you tell me what you’re gonna do with the classroom. Enough.

MAHER: I couldn’t agree more.

ZAKARIA: But I think, I think. To be fair, Rahm. This is–

EMANUEL: I was being fair.

ZAKARIA: No, no, this is a huge Democratic Party problem. If you look at Democratic cities, they are terribly run. They have incredibly high taxes. It is impossible to build, so the cost of housing, let me finish, let me finish. I gave you your chance. The cost of housing is crazy in places like New York and Chicago.

If you look at Democratic states, you know, look, you go to look at New York versus Florida, Okay, roughly the same population. The budget of New York State is twice that of Florida. What do they have? Streets paved with gold? I live in New York. I pay the highest taxes in New York. You get nothing for it, and I think that is the image people have of the Democratic Party. Lots of taxes, lots of regulation, but nothing gets done.

The cast of Friday’s PBS News Hour was not interested in subtlety, nuance, or level-headedness as they discussed recent media news. Host Amna Nawaz wondered if “we’re in much more sinister territory now” due to the changes surrounding the White House press pool. Both Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and New York Times columnist David Brooks agreed, as he went so far as to say Capehart’s employer was now part of the problem given Jeff Bezos’s changes to the editorial page.

Nawaz began, “His continued attacks on the press, blocking the AP’s access from some White House coverage as well. You saw him take control of the White House, take control of the press pool that covers the president full time, makes sure everyone else knows what’s happening with the president.”

Citing Brooks’s colleague, Nawaz continued, “Peter Baker, of course, longtime Russia correspondent, said it reminded him of the Kremlin press pool takeover. And I just want to get your takes on where that sort of attack on the press stands and whether we’re in much more sinister territory now.”

 

 

“Of course,” Vladimir Putin might poison or defenestrate you if you ask him a tough question. Meanwhile, even CNN reporters admit the pool changes haven’t done away with tough questions.

As it was, Capehart agreed, “I do think we are in more sinister territory because you have got to look at what’s happening with AP, in light of his lawsuits against CBS, against ABC, threats, threatening the licenses of other broadcast entities.”

Capehart added:

This is all part of a pattern of roughing up anyone he views as not either insufficiently loyal or people who have wronged him. And he looks at the press as an entity that has wronged him. But what I would say is, you know, it’s sort of inside baseball that, you know, AP is not allowed in the pool, which means it can’t get into all these places. To me, it just says that the White House press corps, which already does hard work, they’re just going to have to work a little bit harder reporting on an administration that already leaks like a sieve.

Brooks not only echoed Nawaz and Capehart’s sentiment; he went further, “Yes, I mean, Donald Trump does everything he can to destroy things that would restrain his power. And so that’s the attorney generals he fires. That’s the inspector generals. That’s the JAG officers. That’s the leadership of the military who doesn’t like. And the press is a potential restraint on his power. And so he is trying to dismantle the idea of the press.”

Before anyone could say, “That’s a tad hyperbolic,” Brooks rolled on, “And if I could bash the press a little, or at least the owner of Jonathan’s newspaper, we’re helping. Jeff Bezos, when he says, not going to — we’re going to have an opinion section in the Washington Post that does not brook dissent, that’s just not journalism.”

He added, “And I have seen this again from entrepreneurs who say, why would you publish something you disagree with? They just don’t get it, some people. That’s what we do. That’s what democracy is. Your loyalty to democracy is higher than your loyalty to one ideology or another. And so the idea that we’re not — we have a major newspaper that doesn’t publish dissent, that can’t be.”

Bezos’s exact words were, in part, “personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

“Other topics” is a broad category. In fact, at the time of the publishing of this article, the Washington Post opinion page is still full of articles that are critical of Donald Trump, his administration, and conservatives generally. Meanwhile, how many dissenting viewpoints does the New York Times offer?

On her way out the door, fired MSNBC host Joy Reid trashed Donald Trump for delivering “fascism” to America. She also attacked Elon Musk for bringing “apartheid” politics to the United States. 

Over on CBS, 60 Minutes correspondent and ex-Evening News anchor Scott Pelley declared Trump was “in defiance of the Constitution.”  

This past month also saw MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough scare his audience by declaring DOGE cuts were going to cause more plane crashes and not just kill “your family” but “people across the globe.” 

Over on ABC’s The View, Joy Behar labeled Musk an “enemy of the United States” and Sunny Hostin called those who questioned wokeness “ungodly.”

In Hollyweird it’s awards season, which means we got the usual lectures from the entertainment elites about “greed,” global warming and a “white nationalist coup” under Trump.

The following are the most obnoxious outbursts from the leftist media and Hollywood from February: 

 

Joy Reid’s Farewell: “Fascism Isn’t Just Coming, It’s Already Here” 

 

 

“Happy Monday, everyone. And we begin tonight with what I think is the question: when you are in the midst of a crisis and specifically a crisis of democracy, how do you resist — when fascism isn’t just coming, it’s already here?”— Host Joy Reid opening her final show on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, February 24. 

 

South African Elon Musk Has Brought Apartheid Politics to the United States

“Some of the things that Elon Musk is doing, and it is notable to me that the people leading this movement are largely South African, white South Africans, people who had a fascist government that they grew up under in South Africa, which was the apartheid government, and they are taking and exporting their politics here. Peter Thiel. Uh, you know, Elon Musk. There’s a bunch of them, like a little claque of them, and they have Donald Trump, right?”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s TheReidOut, February 24. 

 

Musk’s Cuts Will Cause Plane Crashes and Kill Your Family

 

 

“What the Trump Administration is providing Democrats right now are those cuts. They’re giving them the punchline to, ‘Oh, they’re gonna cut billionaires tax cuts, but guess what they’re gonna do?’ They’re going to take away medical research that saved your daughter or saved somebody in your family. They’re going to take away and fire people in the FAA. So, those plane crashes that you’re seeing, you’re gonna see more of them.”— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, February 19.

 

Elon Musk “Literally Killing People Across the Globe”

 

 

“When are we going to finally see the lawsuits move on USAID and actually an injunction that stops that, all of those actions right now that are literally, unless the reports are exaggerated, literally killing people across the globe right now, this morning, this instant?”— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, February 6. 

 

Something “Very Strange” About “Richest Man” Slashing Programs 

“This is the case….of the richest man in the world and there’s something very strange about him slashing programs that prevent starvation and hunger and poverty in much of the world.”— NPR White House correspondent and ABC News contributor Asma Khalid on ABC’s This Week, February 9.

 

“Too Soon to Tell” How Much Trump “Is In Defiance of the Constitution”

 

 

“It’s too soon to tell how serious President Trump is in defiance of the Constitution. In his first 28 days, he signed an order to nullify birthright citizenship for some — a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. And he has closed agencies and frozen spending that Congress mandated by law.” — Correspondent Scott Pelley on CBS’s 60 Minutes, February 16. 

 

Hardwood Hatred: Elon’s “Sympathy for Racists and Nazis” is “Damaging” America

“Your combination of aggressive ignorance, malign motivation, and sympathy for racists and Nazis is badly damaging our country also, Just Say No to drugs.”— February 17 X.com post by former CNN White House correspondent and CNBC correspondent John Harwood in response to Elon Musk. 

 

PBS: Trump’s “Gulf of America” Ban on AP is Attack On “First Amendment”

 

 

“The White House, by going after AP for an editorial choice, is going directly at the First Amendment. It is going directly at the freedom of the press. And it is not coincidental that they are going after AP. AP is extremely influential. They’re also kind of straight down the line. They are not a partisan news outlet in any way.”— NPR White House reporter Tamara Keith on PBS’s News Hour, February 17.

 

Brennan Blames Holocaust on Free Speech

 

 

“He [Vice President J.D. Vance] was standing in a country [Germany] where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide. And he met with the head of a political party that has far right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that, that the censorship was specifically about the right.”— Moderator Margaret Brennan to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on CBS’s Face the Nation, February 16.

 

Donald Trump Should’ve Been Impeached “One Minute” Into His Presidency

 

 

“Donald Trump was eligible for impeachment one minute into his inaugural address for violating the emoluments clause….I think Democrats should start having a different guy come out every week and introduce new articles of impeachment, just to inspire people and show them that we’re doing something and let the record show for history we are fighting against this.”— SiriusXM host John Fugelsang on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, January 31.

 

Trump Is a “Scumbag,” “Racist Piece of Garbage” 

 

 

“Donald Trump’s a scumbag. I mean, I think we can say that. He’s a vile, racist piece of garbage. He happens to be President of the United States, so we have to pay attention. If he wasn’t, he’d be one of vile people out there in this country.”— MSNBC contributor Dean Obeidallah on MSNBC’s Ayman, February 1. 

 

Trump Can Take a Nap While He Lets “Enemy of the United States” Elon Do His Job

 

 

“Elon Musk kisses his [President Donald Trump’s] butt and strokes his tiny ego or big ego, whatever it is….He can take a nap while the guy who was not born in this country, who was born under apartheid in South Africa, so has that mentality going on. He was pro-apartheid….I think this is just perfectly wonderful for Trump. He can take a nap and let this foreigner, foreign agent, you know, an enemy of the United States do his job!”— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, February 27. 

 

Un-American That Trump Isn’t in Prison

Co-host Joy Behar: “That doesn’t sound fair to me. That doesn’t sound American to me….If the person [Donald Trump] gets all the charges dropped from the guy [former Special Counsel] Jack Smith] just because he wins an election, is that American?”— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, February 20.

 

Joy Behar Wants to Re-Name America! 

“This country that we’re in was settled by indigenous people, right? And yet they name the country after an Italian white man, Amerigo Vespucci. That’s what America is named after, Amerigo Vespucci. A white European. Why is it named after a white man, when it was settled by indigenous people?”— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, February 13.  

 

Opposing Wokeness “Is Ungodly” and “Not Christian!”

 

 

“It angers me when people are, like, ‘this woke stuff’s got to go.’ That’s telling me that you don’t care about my lived experience! You don’t care about the oppression of the LGBTQ community! You don’t care about the oppression of the disabled! You don’t care about the oppression of immigrants! You don’t care about your fellow neighbor, and that is ungodly! That is not Christian!”— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, February 24.

 

Plea to Stop the “White Nationalist Coup” from “Taking Over” This “Fascist Country”

“If you really are serious, okay, about stopping the white nationalist coup taking over the country, have you heard of it? Right, if you’re serious about stopping this, how about amplifying black history because black people, we’ve been in a fascist country this whole time.”— Writer/director Justin Simien accepting an award for MGM+ docuseries Hollywood Black at 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards, February 22. 

 

Hollywood Elitist Blames Humanity’s “Greed” for Natural Disasters 

“Wake up, humans! We can’t let greed continue to deny global warming!” — SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher at 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards, February 23. 

 

Trump Is a “First Ballot Hall of Fame Racist” 

 

 

Former CNN host/comedian W. Kamau Bell: “Let’s be clear: Trump has one of the greatest resumes of racism in the history of racism. Yes.”Host Stephen Colbert: “He’s an all-star.”Bell: “He’s a first ballot hall of fame racist. He is the LeBron James of racism.”— CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert, February 5. 

 

Movie About Trump Has Taken On a “Harrowing Resonance” About A “Very, Living Danger” 

Host Christiane Amanpour: “When you see it [The Apprentice] now, since the election, what do you think of it?”Actor Jeremy Strong: “I think it’s taken on a whole other — sort of — harrowing resonance….Seeing it now, to me, it’s about a very, living danger. So I find it troubling to see the film now.”— CNN International/PBS’s Amanpour&Co., February 12.

Ah, old habits die hard. Politico apparently learned nothing after being exposed for being a government-funded lefty propaganda mill and is already trying to pin energy inflation on President Donald Trump.

“Electricity prices are spiking. That’s a problem for Trump,” read Politico E&E News’s February 26 agitprop disguised as a news item. “President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to cut energy costs in half is facing a daunting reality,” railed reporter Brian Dabbs. Dabbs wielded a new report by the anti-Trump American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to drum up newfound media fears that “Electricity prices are tracking toward heights unseen since the 1990s when factoring in inflation,” supposedly due to “skyrocketing demand” of AI data centers, a problem that was already identified under the Biden administration before Trump announced a $500 billion joint venture with tech companies in AI infrastructure. So all that ballyhoo about the alleged “dream economy” former Vice President Kamala Harris was supposedly riding into the 2024 election just flies out the window now that Trump is president, eh Politico?

Conveniently, Dabbs only briefly mentioned the name “Biden” twice in buried paragraphs, and both instances had nothing to do with attributing responsibility to Trump’s predecessor for America’s current energy struggles. This is convenient given how much Politico has mindlessly slobbered over Bidenomics over the years. The Center Square pointed out the same day that Dabbs’ piece was published that experts had notified Congress that “Biden policies raised energy prices.” Specifically, experts “pointed to a litany of federal changes that have slowed down domestic energy production and led to increased costs as a result,” Center Square reported.

Former Environmental Protection Agency chief of staff Mandy Gunasekara reportedly told the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs that under Biden’s administration, “Home heating oil increased 36%, electricity increased 32%, and natural gas increased 25%.” She continued: ‘As a result, one in six American families have been behind on their electricity bills, and the cost for an average household rose approximately $10,000, significantly straining family budgets.”

Did Dabbs bother mentioning any of this context? Nope. Rather, he tried to use the electricity issue to bemoan Trump’s redirection of U.S. energy policy to foster a more pro-fossil fuel friendly economic environment: “Trump so far has cracked down on renewables and blown up U.S. climate policy, arguing that more fossil fuels like natural gas will drive down costs for Americans.” In short, claimed Dabbs, “Clean energy supporters say the Trump administration’s chances at cutting costs are doomed if it pushes fossil-fuel-first priorities.”

Dabbs elevated how “critics say Trump should embrace low-cost wind and solar and dole out rebates for home upgrades if he wants to bring down energy costs.”

Climate Depot founder Marc Morano excoriated Politico in comments to MRC Business: “It is completely devoid of reality for Politico to suggest that we continue the futile pursuit of ‘green energy’ to keep energy prices lower. Fossil fuels actually produce enormous amounts of energy without the need for massive subsidies mandates and banning their competition.” Morano then pointed MRC to a February 28 article by fellow leftist outlet Reuters, which made a shocking admission: “The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80%, opens new tab of the world’s primary energy and a similar share of recent increases in energy consumption, according to The Energy Institute.”

“Perhaps Politico ought to take a look at what Reuters is saying today,” Morano quipped.

 

 

NPR CEO Katherine Maher came for a 15-minute interview at a Semafor summit in D.C. on “trust in media,” but it was a softball session. Instead of being pressed on NPR’s liberal tilt, Semafor reporter Maxwell Tani was incredibly vague: “What have you done in your first year to build or restore trust in NPR?” I was in the room, and suppressed the desire to yell about the answer (and the question).

Tani didn’t mention the name of longtime NPR editor Uri Berliner, or how he was effectively forced out for blowing the whistle on the leftist tilt. He didn’t mention that Berliner found 87 registered Democrats in the NPR newsroom, and zero Republicans. 

Now Tani might think hey, this is a room full of media reporters and critics, I don’t need to be specific. He didn’t ask about how NPR has covered Trump or Biden or Kamala Harris in the last year, or how they covered abortion or transgenderism or climate. So I’m just boiling in my seat. And then inevitably came the fog of an answer, all about process. We have a deeper process! So when your newsroom is all Democrats, who puts on the brakes on liberal bias? 

This event was supposed to be about “trust in media.” At the start of this, the Gallup Poll expert told the audience the media came in with 31 percent expressing a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the press. But the “great deal” number was 8 percent. A big part of that is the Republican half of America, the Trump-voter half, accurately thinks the media are a pile of butlers and maids for the Democrats and the Left.

The trust question is in large part about bias, but they don’t’ want to talk about bias, because they believe in bias. Bias is power. Bias favors the so-called right side of history, or bias favors the marginalized victims of American bigotry. This questioning would underline why Katherine would skip testifying before House Republicans last year, but said yes to this event. We could wonder whether she and her NPR team asked about how tough the questions were going to be, and there were assurances made. Certainly, none of us in the audience were getting questions in. I resisted the urge to disturb the peace.

I stood next to Maher at the reception afterward, but didn’t horn in on the conversation she was having. Then I found NPR reporter David Folkenflik, and met him for the first time. Naturally, I told him her answer was terrible! It’s nice to be agreeable in public, even though no one’s budging on the job. Folkenflik’s been busy chronicling the latest freakout over Jeff Bezos moving The Washington Post editorial pages toward defending “personal liberties” and “free markets.” More libs are cancelling their subscriptions! NPR and Folkenflik exist to channel the most left-wing factions in American news rooms. That tendency would have been a fun question for Katherine to answer.

Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

If President Trump manages to pull off an arrangement that ends the war in Ukraine while reimbursing the United States for some of the tens of billions it has sent to that country, most would see that as a huge win for the world as well as for our country.
“Most”–but not all. The liberal media will do its best to naysay and second-guess any such deal.
Take Friday’s Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough dug deep in his history books to analogize the prospective US-Ukraine deal to the Treaty of Versailles, which was a key to the ending of WWI. Scarborough didn’t explain his analogy, but presumably was alluding to the heavy reparation obligations that the Treaty imposed on Germany for having instigated the war.
And then there was historian and former occasional Biden speechwriter Jon Meacham, who called the deal, and by extension Trump, “imperialist.”
Like Scarborough, Meacham didn’t explain himself, but might have been referring to the imperialist practice of exploiting the natural resources of its colonies. The huge difference here is that the US would be seeking reimbursement for having come to the aid of Ukraine, to the tune of over $100 billion, in defending itself against Russia.

Morning Joe, in the person of Willie Geist, also poured cold water over Trump’s suggestion that the presence of many Americans in Ukraine for purposes of extracting and exporting the rare earth minerals under the deal would provide security for Ukraine. Geist:

“That offer there is not going to provide a lot of comfort to President Zelensky, the people of Ukraine, or to Europe, by the way, that just by virtue of us being there, the United States having a presence in Ukraine, nobody’s going to mess with us. ”

But more than half of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals are reportedly located in the four regions annexed by Russia in 2022.  If Americans were sent into those regions to extract the minerals, surely Putin would understand that any action that could potentially harm them would have to be met with a forceful American response.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/28/25
6:07 am ET

WILLIE GEIST: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet this morning with President Trump at the White House. The leaders expected to sign a deal giving the United States ownership of some rare earth minerals in Ukraine, although the specific details have not yet been disclosed. 

The talks follow a tense back and forth with Zelensky rejecting Trump’s earlier proposal that the US take $500 billion worth of minerals without offering security guarantees. 

While Trump has downplayed security commitments, he claimed yesterday American involvement alone provides some level of protection. 

DONALD TRUMP: President Zelensky’s coming to see me on Friday, Friday morning, and we’re going to be signing really a very important agreement for both sides because it’s really going to get us into that country. 

We’ll be working there. We’ll have a lot of people working there. And so in that sense, it’s very good. It’s a backstop, you could say. I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things which we need for our country.

And we appreciate it very much and I look forward to seeing him.

GEIST: So, Joe, that offer there is not going to provide a lot of comfort to President Zelensky, the people of Ukraine, or to Europe, by the way, that just by virtue of us being there, the United States having a presence in Ukraine, nobody’s going to mess with us. 

. . . 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: I also, I’ve got to say, I’m curious what your thoughts are about a proposed $500 billion, I don’t know exactly what you would call it, pay, payoff from Ukraine to the United States of America. 

It seems to me like we’re getting into Treaty of Versailles material there. That would, first of all, it doesn’t line up with how much the United States has loaned Ukraine. And secondly, it’s, it would be crippling to an economy that has to get rebuilt after this war finally ends. 

JON MEACHAM: Yeah, in more ways than one it’s a pre-1914 maneuver. It’s a kind of imperialist. Basically, Zelensky’s renting us or we’re renting ourselves to them, for a certain amount of money and asset. 

MSNBC’s staggering lack of self-awareness was in rare form Thursday. That night on The 11th Hour, Marty Baron, former executive editor of The Washington Post, opined on the Post’s recent espousal of personal liberty and free market views. Baron was outraged that the paper had taken positions he happened to dislike, and called the move “undemocratic,” suggesting, ironically, that the free press was in danger.

Ruhle began with the heavy pronouncement, “It is a challenging time to be a journalist in America.” She then explained that the previous day Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos had adopted a new policy of endorsing “personal liberties and free markets” in the paper’s opinion section. “What do you make of what’s happening right now(…)?” she asked Baron.

Baron nebulously said he was “very concerned about it because of what it represents.” “I actually don’t know any columns that ran in The Washington Post that were against personal liberties,” he huffed, not explaining what the problem was.

He then claimed that it was somehow a form of “cancel culture” of “liberal opinions,” which sounded like a tacit admission that liberal opinions were antithetical to personal liberties.

Baron went on to imply that the press was becoming a propaganda wing of the Trump administration, claiming America was following in the footsteps of Hungary, where he alleged Prime Minister Viktor Orban to be an “aspiring autocrat,” who had “marginalized the independent press there, and limited its reach.” “[T]hat’s exactly what this administration is trying to do,” he added. 

 

 

Ruhle asked Baron what the future of American journalism might look like, claiming that many journalists were now “[W]aking up scared. They’re scared to do their jobs, they’re scared they’re going to get fired, they’re scared they’re going to get sued, they’re scared the government is going to go after them, just for being journalists.”

“Well, we need to keep doing our job. That’s why we have an independent press in this country,” Baron declared, calling it the founders’ “original assignment” for them:

That is exactly why the founders of this country wanted to have an independent press. It is, in my view, the original assignment that was given to the press in this country. And I think that remains our assignment today, and we need to continue doing that job. 

It was pretty rich, and quite noticeable, that Baron was invoking the constitutional right to free speech to attack Bezos and The Washington Post’s exercise of that very right, in the political positions they had chosen to endorse. In fact, he was calling their exercise of their constitutional right “undemocratic,” and a threat to that very same constitutional right.

Of course, absent from Baron’s bloviating about an “independent press” was the Post employees’ protest over Bezos’s order to not endorse a candidate for president.

Baron, though, appeared oblivious to his own logical incoherence, and to all appearances Ruhle didn’t notice, either. As though Baron had offered some profound words of wisdom, she gushed, “Marty, I am so glad you joined us tonight. I really appreciate it.”

To view full transcript, click “expand” to read:

MSNBC’s The 11th Hour
02/27/2025
11:39 PM

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: BEZOS OVERHAULS WASHINGTON POST OPINION SECTION]

STEPHANIE RUHLE: It is a challenging time to be a journalist in America. 

This week, The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos revealed its opinion section will now be dedicated to advocating for, quote, ‘personal liberties and free markets.’ Viewpoints opposing those topics, he says, will be left to be published by others. 

The section’s editor, David Shipley, reportedly spent weeks trying to convince Mr. Bezos to change his mind, but when he refused, David Shipley resigned.

Marty Baron, former executive editor- famed former executive editor- of The Washington Post, joins me now. He’s the author of the book Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post. 

Marty, you worked at the Post for nearly a decade, some of the most important, successful years. You once praised Jeff Bezos for how he stood up for the Post during your tenure. What do you make of what’s happening right now, yesterday’s move?

FORMER WASHINGTON POST EXECUTIVE EDITOR MARTY BARON: Well, I’m very concerned about it because of what it represents. 

You know- Jeff talked about standing for personal liberties. I actually don’t know any columns that ran in The Washington Post that were against personal liberties. 

But the personal liberty that I often think about, is one that’s embedded in the First Amendment, and that is free expression. And one of the ways that news organizations honored free expression and promoted public debate was to have a wide variety of opinions on their opinion pages.

And now Jeff Bezos is saying, ‘there will be a limited set of opinions on the opinion pages, in fact, it will be limited to opinions that are in line with my own.’ And I find that- basically undemocratic. It’s a kind of a form of- cancel culture, actually- canceling liberal opinions. 

And- I think that’s against the- that runs counter to the heritage of The Washington Post, runs counter to the principles of The Wash- the long-standing principles of The Washington Post, and is really an undemocratic move on his part.

RUHLE: Let’s talk about what’s happening at the White House. Because, a week ago, the President tossed out the Associated Press for not calling it the ‘Gulf of America.’ Now, they want to handpick the press pool. What do you think of these moves?

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT WILL HANDPICK PRESS POOL, ABANDONING DECADES OF PRECEDENT]

BARON: Well, I actually expected the worst from this administration with regard to its posture toward the press. But I’m discovering that the worst is worse than I thought. 

This is a constant attack on the press. It’s an effort to marginalize an independent press, to undermine an independent press, to destroy its economic sustainability. 

And- these are the kinds of moves that you see in- regimes- in- in autocratic regimes, or where some- the leader- is an aspiring autocrat. You can see this all around the world. 

And you see- I think- that Trump is- modeling himself after Viktor Orban, in Hungary. And they have- not entirely destroyed an independent- independent press, but they’ve certainly marginalized the independent press there, and limited its reach. And I think that’s exactly what this administration is trying to do.

RUHLE: So how should the White House Correspondents’ Association, how should the news media respond to this? Right? 

Yesterday I spoke to a member of Trump’s first administration, and he said the most important hour of Donald Trump’s day is when he talks to the press. If- if the White House press pool didn’t show up for a week, it would be worse for Trump than it would be for them. 

But if they were to make a move like that, that is a scary game of chicken, given how important it is to cover this White House. What should they do?

BARON: Yeah, it’s really hard. 

You know, this is an administration that constantly talks about how the traditional press is ‘irrelevant,’ and yet they’re completely obsessed about the traditional press, which would suggest to you that we’re not irrelevant, that they care a lot about what we do, because the reporting really matters and it can have a big impact, and it still does. 

How to respond to this is a really difficult thing. Certainly, I think we should have the spirit of ‘one for all, all for one.’ I don’t know that that necessarily means we have to boycott events and pull reporting on- on Trump. But- I do think that the news organizations that are covering Trump should share all of their information, all of their video, all of their still images, everything that they have, among themselves, and say that if any one of us is excluded, they get all of the material from all of us. 

And- that that- they need to get beyond the idea of just being completely competitive, and say that we’re all standing together.

RUHLE: What’s your message to journalists? 

Or- or where do you think the news media is headed? You spent decades in it, and right now people are waking up scared. They’re scared to do their jobs, they’re scared they’re going to get fired, they’re scared they’re going to get sued, they’re scared the government is going to go after them, just for being journalists.

BARON: Well, we need to keep doing our job. That’s why we have an independent press in this country. 

Keep in mind- that- we have the First Amendment, and why we- and I think it’s important to keep in mind why we have the First Amendment. And James Madison, one of our founders, was the principal author of the First Amendment, and when he talked about it, he talked about the need for freely examining public characters and measures. 

And I emphasize the word ‘examining’. Examining means that we are not stenographers, that we have to go beyond that, we need to look behind the curtain and beneath the surface, and we need to hold the powerful to a- to account. 

That is exactly why the founders of this country wanted to have an independent press. It is, in my view, the original assignment that was given to the press in this country. And I think that remains our assignment today, and we need to continue doing that job. 

We need to report, we need to dig, we need to find out what is happening in government, we need to know what powerful individuals and powerful institutions are doing, and we need to tell the public as straightforwardly and as directly and as frankly as we possibly can, what we’ve learned to be true.

RUHLE: Marty, I am so glad you joined us tonight. I really appreciate it.

BARON: Thanks very much for having me.