Fake News

Foxy Healthcare

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 10/3/25

Headline:  “The masks slip as Fox propagandists reveal they want health care premiums to skyrocket”

“Fox News propagandists are overwhelmingly backing the GOP’s bogus shutdown message that congressional Democrats are refusing to fund the government because they want to give health care to illegal immigrants. But every once in a while their masks slip, and they reveal that they oppose extending the crucial Obamacare subsidies at the heart of Democrats’ actual position, which would trigger drastic premium price hikes for millions of Americans”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/masks-slip-fox-propagandists-reveal-they-want-health-care-premiums-skyrocket

MAGA Media Hate Trans-People?

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Article in Common Dreams by Stephen Prager, 9/12/25

Headline:  ” ‘WSJ, Media Outlets Slammed for Spreading Feds’ False Claim That Kirk Shooter Expressed ‘Transgender Ideology’ “

Subhead:  “ ‘What a truly disgusting week for American journalism,’ said one transgender writer.”

“The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets are facing widespread criticism after publishing a false report that the assassin who shot right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah this week had left behind symbols of ‘transgender ideology’ at the scene of the crime. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/charlie-kirk-2673989947

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Article in The Verge by Elizabeth, Lopatto, 9/12/25

Headline:  “The WSJ carelessly spread anti-trans misinformation”

“While I generally respect The Wall Street Journal, every once in a while it sees fit to remind me that it is, in fact, owned by Rupert Murdoch. This time, it printed something dangerously close to anti-trans blood libel in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shooting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theverge.com/politics/777630/wsj-trans-misinformation-charlie-kirk

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taafe, et. al., 9/12/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media rushed to blame killing of Charlie Kirk on trans people”

Subhead: “Authorities pushed back on unverified claims that the alleged shooter’s ammunition was inscribed with ‘transgender ideology’ ”

“. . . Some media figures seized on the scant reporting as key evidence of the suspect’s motivations, with right-wing commentators and outlets claiming the killer was a ‘leftist Trans radical,’ labeling the killing an act of ‘trans terrorism,’ and calling for the ‘trans movement’ to be labeled ‘as a terrorist movement’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/right-wing-media-rushed-blame-killing-charlie-kirk-trans-people

Simple Trans Math

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Article in Daily Beast by Will Neal, 8/31/25

Headline: ‘It’s Simple Math’: CNN Anchor Shuts Down Trump Aide’s Wild Rant

Subhead:  “Sebastian Gorka got himself ruthlessly fact-checked by the network after claiming there’d been an uptick in mass shootings by transgender individuals.”

“President Donald Trump’s counterterrorism czar got into a fiery clash with a CNN anchor after he was accused of fixating on the trans identity of the Minnesota school shooter. . .”

“But network anchor Brianna Keilar said he ‘missing the bigger picture,’ pointing out that of the 32 school mass shootings that have occurred in the country since 2020, only two others were carried out by perpetrators who identified as transgender or gender-diverse. . .”

” ‘It’s simple math. Two of 32,’ Keilar responded, adding that the network ‘could not stick with your facts because they are not accurate.’

“This appeared to particularly incense Gorka, who accused CNN of making up ‘fake news’ on the spot in order to discredit his argument.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-simple-math-cnn-anchor-shuts-down-trump-aides-wild-rant/

Ethics for Reporters?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Gerstein & Margaret Sullivan, 8/21/25

Headline:  “Thirteen Journalists on How They Are Rethinking Ethics”

Subhead: “We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, “fake news,” AI, and industry decline.”

“. . .This summer, the two of us—Margaret Sullivan and Julie Gerstein, of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University—have been exploring, in a series of pieces with CJR, whether those ethics are sufficient for journalists in the modern moment. Whether, in the face of artificial intelligence, “fake news,” eroding protections for sources, and the weakening of their business model, journalists should adjust their core tenets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/thirteen-journalists-on-how-they-are-rethinking-ethics-newsroom-leaders-ethicists-trump-fake-news-ai.php

Kill the Media, Hide the News

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Article in Daily Kos by Thom Hartmann

Headline:  “Are Americans Being Conditioned by Our Media to Become ‘Good Germans’?”

“. . .Nazi loyalists and party-friendly oligarchs took over the press outlets that remained in a massive media consolidation project, ensuring that every headline and every radio news report served the regime much like Fox ‘News’ and rightwing hate-radio/podcasts do today for Trump. . .”

“In both 1940s Germany and today’s America, the effect is similar: the public is shielded from the human scale of state-led actions against targeted groups, making it easier for those policies to continue without mass pushback. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/15/2338560/-Are-Americans-Being-Conditioned-by-Our-Media-to-Become-Good-Germans?

CNN Doesn’t Buy Conspiracy Theories

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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 7/28/25

Headline: “Jake Tapper Dumbfounded by Trump’s Epstein Files Claim: ‘One of the Most Bizarre Conspiracy Theories I’ve Ever Heard’ “

“CNN’s Jake Tapper isn’t remotely buying President Donald Trump’s claim that files relating to Jeffrey Epstein were doctored in an attempt to implicate Trump, a former friend of the deceased sex trafficker.

“Trump’s Department of Justice is declining to release additional files regarding Epstein after the president was told he was in them. The president denies wrongdoing.

“On Monday’s edition of The Lead, Tapper spoke with former Preet Bharara, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and asked if Bharara’s office fielded any accusations against Epstein.

“Not across my desk, no,” Bharara replied before noting the firing of former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, who worked on the federal case against Epstein in New York. Attorney General Pam Bondi terminated Comey this month for unspecified reasons shortly after Bondi claimed that Epstein did not have the long-rumored client list she once alleged he had. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/jake-tapper-dumbfounded-by-trumps-epstein-files-claim-one-of-the-most-bizarre-conspiracy-theories-ive-ever-heard/

Immigrant Plight Ignored

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffe & Torri Lonergan

Headline:  “Right-wing media claimed the ‘worst of the worst’ would be housed at Florida’s new immigrant detention center. Hundreds of detainees have no criminal record.”

“Right-wing media have heralded the Trump administration’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ as a detention center for ‘pedophiles’ and ‘drug traffickers,’ but new reporting shows over 250 detainees have no criminal charges.

“Contrary to right-wing media’s narrative about the detention center, detainees include asylum-seekers and people who have been held over minor infractions like traffic violations — despite insistence from right-wing media figures that the harsh camp would be reserved for ‘the worst of the worst’ and the ‘baddest of the bad hombres,’ with one calling the detainees ‘subhuman’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-claimed-worst-worst-would-be-housed-floridas-new-immigrant-detention

Objectivity or Propaganda?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Gerstein & MArgaret Sullivan, 7/10/25

Headline:  “Is Objectivity Still Worth Pursuing?”

Subhead:  “A generation of journalists is challenging traditional standards.”

“Objectivity hasn’t always been a cornerstone of journalism. American publishers first turned to objectivity in the early twentieth century, in response to the freewheeling ‘yellow journalism’ common at the time. Readers embraced it, grateful for a withdrawal from sensationalism and opinionated coverage.

“American journalist Walter Lippmann, one of the early champions of objectivity, saw the dangers posed by propaganda masquerading as news and argued in 1920 that the ‘sensible procedure in matters affecting the liberty of opinion would be to ensure as impartial an investigation of the facts as is humanly possible.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/is-objectivity-in-journalism-still-worth-pursuing.php

Epstein in Media Again

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 7/7/25

Headline:  “MAGA media eat their own after Trump administration denies their Epstein conspiracy theories”

“. . .The White House brought 15 MAGA influencers in to meet with Bondi in February, sending them home with glossy binders labeled ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1.’ When those binders did not satisfy the MAGA faithful, the attorney general reportedly tasked ‘hundreds of FBI employees’ with reviewing Epstein investigation documents for release. In May, Patel and Bongino were sent to Fox to make the case, with the fervor of the converted, that Epstein had actually killed himself. And now the FBI and DOJ have produced a memo detailing their findings and released footage taken from outside Epstein’s cell in the hours surrounding his suicide.

“The final result left Trump’s most zealous online allies with two options: They could finally acknowledge that they had been peddling nonsense for years — or they could insinuate that the Trump administration itself is part of the cover-up. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/maga-media-eat-their-own-after-trump-administration-denies-their-epstein-conspiracy