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Low-Octane Gaslighting – APPLE+
We look forward to the time when Jon Stewart visits the U.S. for the first time.
On his streaming platform program that few can even find, Jon Stewart had some pointed opinions about the state of a media complex that is hard to argue with upon hearing:
“You have a media machine that purposefully lies to its people to maintain a political fiction and get themselves power, that is the hallmark of an authoritarian system – not a democratic system.”
That is a spot-on analysis of what we are currently experiencing…except it is not what Stewart was describing. He was in Hungary, and was speaking with a representative and describing that country’s press complex. It is with a amazement that he then adds this to his comments:
“If we were ever to get something like that in the United States we would be horrified – furious!”
Oh…Jon…
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Jon Stewart is ‘Horrified’ to Learn About Hungary’s State Media
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) March 10, 2025
“You have a media machine that purposefully lies to its people to maintain a political fiction and get themselves power … It would never happen in the United States.” pic.twitter.com/lp6vJ21Spm
DNC PR Firm – CNN
That White House promotion is sure paying off for CNN.
Let’s harken back and look over the days since January 20 as the press complained that President Trump was flooding the zone, constantly in the face of the press. Kaitlan Collins even sat in with Seth Meyers to carp about being so busy from Trump she sometimes had to skip breakfast.
Now, the newly christened correspondent is delivering a new message. She tries to claim that President Trump is ducking the media because the stock market is looking rocky at the moment. To underscore just how far removed from reality Collins is on this claim, within minutes of her making this statement, the president took questions from reporters for over half an hour.
Kaitlan Collins has called out President Donald Trump for keeping the press away amid a “tanking” stock market “tanking” after his refusal to rule out an economic downturn. pic.twitter.com/1a07ZRvHH7
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) March 11, 2025
Both Kinds of Standards – VARIOUS NEWS OUTLETS
Apparently, this is a completely unprecedented action…since the last president did it.
You may be noticing today the press appears remarkably bothered that Donald Trump featured a Tesla vehicle on the White House grounds. Many in the media are expressing outrage at this display, and yet in order to find any other example of a president doing this sort of thing, we would have to reach all the way back to the last president, who drove Jeep EVs around the White House grounds. If you have a hard time recalling the press outrage over Biden doing so, that is for a good reason.
One of these is bad and the other is good, you see pic.twitter.com/P8saXHeDpr
— Magills (@magills_) March 11, 2025
Glossary Over Things – MSNBC
I guess these are fiery but peaceful bombings of dealerships.
On the subject of Teslas, at MSNBC, they covered one particular portion of the Trump event with Elon’s cars, where the president commented on the string of violence continuing to take place at showrooms, Tesla charging stations, and other actions related to the vehicles. The president mentioned that those people committing this level of violence should be arrested and prosecuted fully.
When the segment cut back to the studio, listen in as Alicia Mendez described it thusly: “Just to be clear — if you protest a private company, you are labeled by this administration as a domestic terrorist.”
No, dear — when you firebomb a dealership, shoot bullets into a showroom, or try to burn down charging stations, those are not protests but acts of violence that constitute terrorism.
MSNBC Host wants to “be clear” that attacks against Tesla are is “protests.” pic.twitter.com/7tUyAaZJYS
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2025
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – MILITARY.com
When rumors are delivered as genuine news.
In a great display of how to defang the rabid media directly in their face, new Secretary of the Veterans Administration Doug Collins delivered a textbook example on how to handle this with calm insistence. He sat in with reporter Patricia Kime and called her out directly, but in a non-confrontational manner, laying out how she was resorting to whisper campaigns and rumors to report on what is taking place at the VA.
Collins tells her he has staff she can reach out to and get the facts, as opposed to hearsay, and she is cowed into admitting she needed to do better. Note the moment when she moves from defensively saying she had reached out to the VA liaison with DOGE, and then minutes later admitting she was surprised to learn there was such a liaison.
Reporters – Please help our Veterans by NOT spreading unconfirmed rumors, hearsay and innuendo about @DeptVetAffairs. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/rZbMQn5VmY
— VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) March 11, 2025
Legalized Press-titution – POLITICO
It would appear there is a built-in bias here…
As controversy is swirling around the move to have ICE collect campus activist Mahmoud Khalil, Politico comes out with a bizarre conflicting report.
The article claims Republicans “hate” universities, and the recent conflicts on campuses have given the party a means to come and “punish” schools.
This is already a warped approach to the subject, and it bypasses many of the events that have transpired on the campus of Columbia University leading up to Khalil’s detainment. The other problem is describing Khalil and his movement as “anti-war,” when they have not only demonstrated hatefully and broken laws, but have also declared they support armed conflict and resisting with violence.
It is bad enough the editors let this type of tripe filter through their oversight, but then learning the reporter matriculated from Columbia is another indicator they should have clamped down tighter on this report.
I wonder where Politico reporters learned to spin pro-terrorist and pro-war Columbia student groups as “anti-war”? pic.twitter.com/H4m6yKi2rf
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 12, 2025