Media Misinformation

MAGA Media Pointing. . .

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Article in Media Matters by Noah VanDowe & Zachary Pleat, 11/5/26

Headline: “‘A clown show’: The right-wing media blame game over the midterms is full steam ahead”

Subhead: “Reeling from Republican losses, conservative hosts blamed each other, the party, and Donald Trump himself”

“Following the 2026 midterm elections, which resulted in massive Democratic victories to flip control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as an end to decades of Republican dominance in Texas and other Southern and Midwestern states, right-wing media commentators wasted little time before searching for scapegoats. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/clown-show-right-wing-media-blame-game-over-midterms-full-steam-ahead

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 11/4/26

Headline:  “MAGA’s Midterm Meltdown”

Subhead: “After Democrats’ historic victory Tuesday night, MAGA Media figures are turning on one another over the GOP debacle – and telling Status the party must move on from Trump”

“. . .By the end of the night, of course, the picture looked dramatically different. Democrats had delivered a stunning rebuke of Republicans, flipping longtime GOP strongholds in the Senate, including Texas and South Carolina, and leaving right-wing media figures scrambling to explain how they had so badly misread the electorate. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://archive.ph/74jty#selection-639.0-679.104

Challenge: Keeping-up With the Lies

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Article in Poynter by Angie Drobnic Holan, 10/28/26

Headline:  “Fact-checking changed journalism. Then the falsehoods changed, too.”

Subhead:  “Twenty years after PolitiFact launched, fact-checkers face an information environment more chaotic than the one they set out to fix”

“PolitiFact started out of discontent with our own field of political journalism. We thought journalists parroted far too many talking points and messages they knew were not true, primarily out of deference to authority. . .”

“Today, whenever a candidate repeats a well-worn lie, it’s standard practice for a story to point out that the claim is false or unsupported by evidence. I think that is the most important accomplishment of the past 20 years. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2026/history-fact-checking-challenges-future-ai/

Media Storm Continues

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Article in The Washington Sun by Ayah Ali-Ahmad, 10/23/26

Head;line:  “Trump’s Battle With the Media Ramps Up”

Subhead:  “This week brought a retraction demand to Politico, a reporter blocked from Air Force One, an FCC warning to broadcasters and a reported plan to evict the press corps from the White House.”

“As President Donald Trump barnstorms the country ahead of the midterms, on top of his usual White House events this week, he’s had some pointed exchanges with journalists in his path. He called one reporter a ‘dummy,’ another ‘a stupid person’ and a third ‘a sick person.’

“The angry name-calling comes as tensions between the White House and the media have ratcheted up. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/trump-battle-with-media

Despicable Ad Draws Media

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Article in The Bulwark by Will Sommer, 10/22/26

Headline:  “MAGA Media Learns to Love Vile Vivek Ramaswamy Ad”

Subhead:  “For these supposed moral authorities, the only question is whether it works.”

“. . .Instead of denouncing the ad, [Ben] Shapiro said it was no worse than members of the Kennedy family criticizing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or relatives of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) opposing his re-election. Besides, Shapiro asked, do you remember when Democrats said JD Vance had sex with a couch?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-media-learns-to-love-vile-vivek-ramaswamy-ad

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehman, 10/22/26

Headline:  “Vivek Ramaswamy’s New Attack Ad Should Be a National Scandal”

Subhead:  “The Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate has accused his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, of lying about being raped when she was 12 years old.”

“. . .When the ad surfaced as part of an online poll, it met with a proper wave of outrage and disbelief. A MAGA movement that’s long dismissed and excused sexual assault, up to and including President Donald Trump’s special pleading for the defendants in the Cornell gang-rape case, was now attacking the credibility of a 12-year-old rape victim. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/ramaswamy-acton-attack-ad/– – – – –

Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 10/21/26

Headline:  “Vance Defends ‘Vile’ Ramaswamy Ad, Offering Preview of ‘Venom’ He’s Likely to Deploy in 2028 Race”

Subhead: “Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad exposed him as ‘disgusting, vile, and unfit,’ said one former Republican lawmaker, but ‘JD Vance arrives to show there’s someone even worse.'”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jd-vance-vivek

WH Press Sec. Gone But Not Forgotten

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Article in The New Republic by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, 10/15/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Press Secretary Admits She Was in ‘Sort of a Pyramid Scheme’”

Subhead:  “Katie Zacharia’s résumé included a stint at a fitness MLM.”

“Katie Zacharia’s long résumé includes stints as an unqualified legal commentator, an associate at a Chinese law firm, an uncredentialed general counsel, and—in her own words—a participant in ‘sort of a pyramid scheme.’. . .”

https://newrepublic.com/post/216714/trump-press-secretary-zacharia-pyramid-scheme-mlm

Selective Analysis in NYT

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 10/15/26

Headline:  “New York Times cleans up Vance’s bigotry”

“Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance became one of the most prominent Republican voices to attack Texas’ Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico with bigoted homophobic and transphobic remarks.

“But in covering these smears, The New York Times downplayed Vance’s hateful rhetoric and even sought out a justification from a friendly pro-Republican source. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/15/800112897/media/new-york-times-cleans-up-vances-bigotry/

Rt. Media and Deporting Americans

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Article in Media Matters by Reed McMaster & Ben Van Bloem, 10/14/26

“Right-wing media figures have long spread conspiracy theories against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). During the second Trump administration, this has manifested in calls to deport Omar, an American citizen, citing as supposed evidence the conspiracy theories that have spread for years. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/maga-media-figures-demanded-and-teased-immigration-action-against-rep-ilhan-omar-and

A New Perfect Spokesperson

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Article in The Guardian by Arwa Mahdawi, 10/13/26

Headline:  “Loves Trump, lies and conspiracies: Katie Zacharia is the perfect presidential press secretary”

Subhead:  “The Maga member believes the 2020 election was stolen and seemingly her new boss is saving the world from a cabal of satanic paedophiles. She’ll fit right in then”

“While you’ve obviously got to worship the president to get a top comms role with him, there are a few other job requirements. Not least a willingness to embrace what former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway called ‘alternative facts’. . .”

“. . .If Zacharia lasts even a year in her new role, meanwhile, I’ll be surprised. With a (very likely) disastrous midterm election approaching, she has her work cut out and will need all the alternative facts she can find. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/13/trump-lies-conspiracies-katie-zacharia-press-secretary

Propaganda / Media

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 10/8/26

Headline:  “Fox News at 30: Even the pretense of impartiality is all but gone”

“Fox News’ role as a Republican propaganda machine is clear to anyone who has bothered to peruse its programming — President Donald Trump knows it, Fox co-founder Rupert Murdoch knows it, disgraced network co-founder Roger Ailes knew it, and longtime viewers like me certainly know it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-30-even-pretense-impartiality-all-gone

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Susie Banikarim, 10/9/26

Headline: “After Thirty Years, Fox Remains the House Ailes Built”

Subhead: “Racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and consistently high ratings. . .”

“. . .Though much has been made of the fracturing of right-wing media, Fox remains the most popular and powerful source of news-like content for many Americans. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/laurels-and-darts/after-thirty-years-fox-news-remains-house-ailes-built-racism-misogyny-xenophobia-high-ratings.php

Media Reported “Little Excursion”?

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Article in Poynter by Amy Sherman and Maria Briceño, 10/6/26z

Headline:  “Trump said the Iran war would last weeks. Now he says the media got it wrong.”

Subhead:  “Trump now says his 4-6 week estimate was about eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat. That’s not what he said at the time.”

“Donald Trump told them would be over in a matter of weeks — has led to higher inflation and energy prices, including for gasoline.

“Now seven months into the conflict, Trump is defending his decision to attack Iran with Israel on Feb. 28, but he’s recasting his initial timeline for what he once labeled a ‘little excursion.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2026/trump-iran-war-timeline-media-fact-check/