At the Cannes Lions festival in France, the most prestigious gathering in advertising where awards are given for effective campaigns, they’ve spent decades talking past right-of-center consumers entirely. Not represented in the work. Not studied in the research. Not discussed on the panels. Treated as a problem to manage rather than an audience to understand.
This year, we want to help change that. At LSKR Connects, sponsored by The Daily Wire, we’re building the day around the consumer conversations the industry too often avoids: overlooked audiences, the dangers of brand safety, and creative conformity. It&#8217;s a full day of fireside sessions focused specifically on the consumer, and the marketing strategies that actually can connect with all Americans.
<blockquote>
<h3>Introducing LSKR Connects, sponsored by The Daily Wire</h3>
 Matthew Mazzone, LSKR&#8217;s Chief Creative Officer and Christine Hoffmann, Executive Vice President of Ad Revenue at The Daily Wire, joined heads to make LSKR Connects, with the goal of forcing the conversation Cannes has spent decades avoiding. A full day of sessions on June 24, built around four topics that the rest of the festival won&#8217;t touch:
<ul>
<li>The Market You’re Missing — Addressing brands antigrowth strategies </li>
<li>The Influencer Orbit — Where trust is won and lost</li>
<li>Institutional Pressure — How brands drift from their core consumers</li>
<li>Original Thinking in a Conformist Market</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Mazzone, the Chief Creative Officer at LSKR, an advertising firm that’s focused on appealing to the whole consumer market, says that the advertising executives who descend on Cannes later this month are focused on the wrong type of creative. 
“Brands deserve agencies that understand their customers and respect the value they deliver,” Mazzone told The Daily Wire. “LSKR exists because a massive segment of American consumers has been overlooked by the advertising industry, and brands are paying the price.”
“Creative should not be designed to impress the industry,” Mazzone told The Daily Wire, describing what typically happens at Cannes. “It should be designed to connect with the customer. At the end of the day, every creative decision should answer one question: does this help the brand connect with its core consumer and sell more goods and services?”
Surveys consistently show that a majority of consumers are increasingly willing to spend extra with brands that align with their values, and are less likely to buy from a company that takes a political stand they disagree with. 
<div id="attachment_1104197" style="width: 498px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1104197" class=" wp-image-1104197" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-300x152.png" alt="" width="488" height="247" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-300x152.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-1024x518.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-768x389.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-1536x778.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM.png 1576w" sizes=" (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px" />Ipsos Global Trends</div>
A whopping 62% of Americans buy brands that reflect their personal values, a double-digit increase in the last decade.
<div id="attachment_1104227" style="width: 479px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1104227" class=" wp-image-1104227" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-300x167.png" alt="" width="469" height="261" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-300x167.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-1024x569.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-768x426.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-1536x853.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM.png 1736w" sizes=" (max-width: 469px) 100vw, 469px" />Ipsos Global Trends</div>
Hoffmann, the Executive Vice President for advertising revenue at The Daily Wire, knows first-hand from her experience in conservative media how important it is for products to “reach the right audience.”
“Consumers who genuinely align with a brand’s products, values, and customer base are ultimately more valuable than passive scale alone,” Hoffmann said. “Our audience is highly engaged and deeply invested in the content they consume, which creates stronger and more authentic opportunities for brands that show up thoughtfully in those environments.”
“We want to join the broader conversation around how marketers can move beyond overly broad, one-size-fits-all strategies and think more intentionally about resonance, trust, and audience alignment,” Hoffman said.
The Daily Wire has led the charge against the politicization of the advertising industry, exposing how advertising industry executives colluded to keep advertising money away from conservative news organizations. Last year, the top advertising agencies in the world were forced to pledge <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-ftc-secures-landmark-agreement-to-end-political-collusion-in-advertising-industry">to the federal government</a> that they would no longer allow political bias to influence their actions.  
The forgotten consumers
These conversations about “left out” consumers aren’t just a gut feeling. It’s based on real data.
Kim Whitler, a professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, has studied the negative impact on companies that choose to engage in activism. Whitler finds that executives think they’re doing the right thing, even if it hurts their company. 
She says too often business leaders are acting on their “own agenda” and end up making what she calls a “value-destroying activism decision.”
“Having worked with over 1,000 business leaders navigating reputation- and value-destroying activism decisions,” Whitler, a speaker at LSKR Connects, told The Daily Wire. “The most common and most consequential is the belief that ‘doing the right thing’ is a matter of personal conscience rather than legally prescribed responsibility.”
Anne Marie Malecha, who runs a top crisis communications firm, Dezenhall Resources, says the companies get themselves in trouble when they &#8220;start performing for someone other than their customer.”
“Somewhere along the line, a brand decides the people whose opinions matter most are not the people actually buying the product. The activists. The trade press. A loud sliver of social media. A consultant that told them what the &#8216;modern consumer&#8217; wants,” Malecha said. “Whatever it is, the company stops asking who their actual customers are and what those actual customers need from it and starts asking what would make a smaller, vocal noise makers approve of it.”
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1103629" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-2-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="372" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-2.jpg 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" /></div>
“Trust and revenue are declining before most brands know they’re in the middle of a crisis,” she said.
Anson Frericks has seen the consequences firsthand. He had just stepped down as an executive at Anheuser-Busch InBev when it brought on Dylan Mulvaney to promote Bud Light. The marketing team was so far removed from the customer base that the company didn’t even see the backlash coming. 
“When companies hire only employees from NYC, agencies from only NYC, and look at their customer base through the lens of NYC, they are missing the needs of a majority of their customers and only realize it after sales suffer,” Frericks told The Daily Wire. “No one wins.”
Josh Culling, the president of Dezenhall Resources, says the “groupthink” created by the fact that these advertising executives are often clustered together in the same coastal cities is a critical issue for the industry.
“Consumers in the middle of the country have a fundamentally different frame of reference to those on the coasts, and are too often ignored or dismissed,” Culling said. “Brands that are too comfortable living amongst their geographic and socioeconomic peers, and too uncomfortable wading outside that comfortable cohort, leave billions of dollars of shareholder value on the table.”
It’s not only a bad thing for the companies leaving money on the table, it’s a bad thing for the consumers. They deserve the industry’s attention.  
So here&#8217;s the questions worth asking at the most prestigious creative event on earth: Can creativity really be called creative if it only speaks to half the consumers? Why are we drawing inspiration from only half the talent and only half the consumer base?
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1103631" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-3-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="574" height="382" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-3.jpg 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px" /></div>
Cannes has spent decades celebrating creativity while quietly enforcing conformity. LSKR Connects, sponsored by The Daily Wire, is the first time the other half of the conversation gets a seat on the Croisette.
The cream of the industry will be there. The question is whether they&#8217;re ready to hear something they haven&#8217;t heard before.

LSKR

The Consumers The Ad Industry Isn’t Talking To — And Why We’re Going To France With LSKR To Change That

Bias

Conservative Media

Industry

Special Reporting

Editor’s note: this piece was adopted from remarks delivered to the House GOP Members&#8217; Issues Conference in Doral, Florida. 
***
With a Right made up of podcasters, who needs the Left?
At a time when conservative new media figures should be rallying the troops to win in November, the podcasters have proven themselves incapable of getting along, intent on clutching defeat from the jaws of victory, and more interested in pursuing petty grievances than advancing the common good.
One hesitates even to call them “new media” at this point. Twitter has been around for twenty years. Facebook is two years older than that. The first podcast launched in 2003 on RSS technology invented in 2001. So podcasts and social media are “new” in the same way the telephone is new — that is, only relatively new compared with radio and TV or the telegraph.
And just as radio and TV developed certain ticks, opportunities, and pitfalls over time, so too have podcasts. One might liken the development of media to the development of a man as he ages. Those who have taken care of an elderly parent or grandparent know that, as people age, their personality traits don’t change so much as they intensify. Whatever the trait or habit, good or bad, grandma seems to exhibit it more and more year after year. The same principle holds true for the media.
As network television matured into cable news, political debates became sharper. Interviews became tighter. Perspectives became more nakedly partisan or even outright factional. Broadcast personalities became more defined.
As the cable news cycle gave rise to conservative talk radio, those inclinations were magnified. As talk radio gave way to podcasting, those traits intensified even further.
This process, like growing up, has produced both benefits and downsides. When you turn 21 you get to drink, but you also need to get a job. When you’re 61, you get to play with your grandkids, but your back hurts.
As old media have matured into new media, conservatives have had marvelous opportunities unthinkable in the days of newspapers, network TV, and the early days of cable news.
But it’s not all upside. As the new media have developed, they have also cultivated particular vices. The on-demand nature of podcasts has created incentives for broadcasters to become more niche, sensational, radical, and insular.
The local grounding of radio and television incentivized broadcasters to appeal to broad swaths of natural political communities. From dawn to dusk, broadcasts had to cater to relatively normal audiences in order to survive. The wacky shows only aired in the middle of the night.
In the new media, those geographic and linear constraints disappear. Every podcast has a potentially global audience that can listen at any time of the day. A podcast that appeals to a niche interest or ideological hobbyhorse will amass a much larger audience than the radio or TV host who appeals to the plurality or majority of any real political community.
Tune into a right-wing podcast today — including and especially the most popular right-wing podcasts — and you notice that the only thing the podcasters want to talk about is other podcasters.
This is all particularly disappointing because, as I mentioned, the new media are no longer new. Podcasts are now the main source of news in the United States. That’s why the 2024 election came to be known as “the podcast election.”
Two years ago, podcasters propelled President Trump back to the White House with the popular vote. Today, podcasters are stoking a “right-wing civil war” six months before already-challenging midterm elections.
I don’t mean to be too harsh to my fellow podcasters. I’ve done my best to avoid counterproductive infighting and frivolous digressions, but I recognize that these are simply facts and foibles of the medium. It’s no use moving to Mississippi and complaining about the heat. If you’re going to survive and thrive in that environment, you need to accept the facts as they are and learn to adapt.
Still, I can’t help but notice that the supposed “conservative civil war” has almost nothing to do with actual politics. Virtually everyone involved in the conflict supports the Trump administration. Virtually everyone agrees on policy — particularly immigration and crime.
Polls show that Americans still care a lot about those issues, and they generally trust Republicans over Democrats on both fronts. If Republicans can offer voters a coherent policy vision grounded on issues where we have a clear record of success. And if conservative podcasters can help tell that story — or at least get out of the way — the GOP may still have a fighting chance come November.

knowles sisson mowrey

KNOWLES: Do Right-Wing Podcasters Want To Lose The Midterms?

2026 Midterms

Donald Trump

Michael Knowles

Podcast

The Left’s efforts to preserve their censorship industrial complex just triggered a new low in judicial imperialism — one that imperils free expression everywhere.
The Left-wing activist organization known as Media Matters recently filed a suit against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block it from investigating potential antitrust violations.
Media Matters has been around for decades, attempting (unsuccessfully) to boost the reputation of legacy media by launching spurious attacks against journalists it views as too conservative. Recently, Media Matters was accused of working with major advertising companies to form an economic cartel designed to foreclose market access to conservative media outlets. By targeting online publications like Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and The Federalist, the FTC is concerned that Media Matters is trying to eliminate competition to the benefit of legacy media and to the detriment of American consumers.
If true, such conduct would violate federal antitrust law, which prohibits such anti-competitive schemes. Given the gravity of the allegations, the FTC launched an investigation, as required by Congress. With the kind of lawfare tactics the Left has perfected, Media Matters immediately sued to block the FTC from even inquiring into whether the law had been broken.
It is hard to overstate how ludicrous this suit is. Imagine if drug dealers sued to stop the police from investigating their illicit operations, or if a company running a Ponzi scheme sued the SEC to prevent it from examining its fraudulent contracts.
No rational, law-abiding judge would ever countenance such a claim, especially in light of strong Supreme Court precedent to the contrary.
In Associated Press v. United States and again in Lorain Journal Co. v. United States, the Court ruled that the First Amendment does not constitutionally protect the unlawful actions by news media cartels. Justice Hugo Black famously wrote: “Freedom to publish is guaranteed by the Constitution, but freedom to combine to keep others from publishing is not.”
The Media Matters suit is based on a patently absurd argument that the Court has already rejected — twice.
Thus, any judge hearing this case would be obligated to follow Supreme Court precedent, no matter how much she may personally disagree. Unfortunately for the public, Media Matters has managed to land its case before one of the most partisan activists in the federal judiciary.
Despite being just eight months into a lifetime appointment, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan has already drawn criticism from across the political spectrum for her unethical conduct. At her Senate confirmation hearing last year, Sooknanan — a former Big Law attorney who spent a stint in the Biden administration — swore under oath that she was “not lead counsel” in a controversial lawsuit she brought on behalf of a vulture hedge fund against the territory of Puerto Rico.
It is a crime to provide knowingly false testimony to Congress. Sooknanan’s testimony was clearly untrue. It may also have been knowingly false. Her own firm, where she had been a partner, contradicted her testimony and provided evidence that she had indeed been the lead counsel on the case.
Judge Sooknanan is once again playing fast and loose with the law. In flagrant defiance of the Supreme Court, she has issued a preliminary injunction demanding that the FTC immediately cease its investigation into Media Matters.
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The harm of such an order cannot be overstated. Media Matters is not the only leftist group alleged to have formed a cartel: other legacy media sycophants like Ad Fontes Media and the Center for Countering Digital Hate have been accused of the same misconduct. If the FTC is judicially prohibited from protecting new media from antitrust violations, then the existence of potentially hundreds of journalistic enterprises — especially those with conservative leanings — is instantly imperiled.
Fortunately, under the strong leadership of FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, the agency has already appealed the lawless actions by Judge Sooknanan.
But there are additional avenues to combat Sooknanan and other renegade judges who fancy themselves as judicial dictators. House Republicans could launch an impeachment inquiry. The Department of Justice could also investigate Sooknanan’s behavior to determine whether she committed perjury at her confirmation hearing. Higher courts could also begin their own inquiries into her refusal to apply the law evenly and fairly.
Media Matters and Judge Sooknanan are counting on not being held accountable for their actions. They are betting that they can nullify Supreme Court precedent and kill the FTC investigation in the cradle. For the sake of our republic and the freedom of the press, let us pray they are wrong.
* * *
Dan Schneider is the Vice President for Free Speech at the Media Research Center.
Tim Kilcullen is the Senior Fellow for Free Speech at the Media Research Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

E. Barrett Pettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington

A Rogue Judge Just Handed Media Matters Its Biggest Weapon Yet

Censorship

Free Speech

Judges

Leftists

Legacy Media

Media Matters For America

Media Research Center

Washington D.C.

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino choked up during Monday&#8217;s broadcast of his eponymous show as he announced his plan to leave radio and podcasting behind and return to law enforcement.
Bongino, who served in the New York Police Department before taking a role in the United States Secret Service, said that he was accepting the job offered to him by President Donald Trump: Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The radio and podcast host began Monday&#8217;s show by asking a simple question, knowing that his entire audience was likely already aware that he&#8217;d been named to the FBI&#8217;s number two spot: &#8220;All right. How do you start today&#8217;s show?&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dan Bongino <a href="https://twitter.com/dbongino?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dbongino</a> with his VERY EMOTIONAL and HEARTFELT opening of his show today. We LOVE YOU, Dan! ❤️❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/XoJYB9A1Gb">pic.twitter.com/XoJYB9A1Gb</a>
&mdash; MAGA Kitty (@SaveUSAKitty) <a href="https://twitter.com/SaveUSAKitty/status/1894056941044830680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Bongino referenced a &#8220;man card&#8221; that someone had once given him, offering to turn it in temporarily because he expected the topic of his show would result in him getting emotional — and he was right.
&#8220;I got a call from the president, and he couldn&#8217;t have been nicer,&#8221; Bongino said. &#8220;Obviously I&#8217;ll keep the contents between us but I think you get the gist of what it was about &#8230; this is now real.&#8221;
&#8220;The president, Attorney General Bondi, and now Director — gosh, that sounds good to say — FBI Director Kash Patel offered this role, a role I expressed an interest in, and ladies and gentlemen &#8230;&#8221; Bongino choked up then, saying that he&#8217;d warned the audience it was going to happen. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to accept the role, proudly, as the deputy director, the number two spot at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.&#8221;
&#8220;Folks, it&#8217;s a lot to walk away from,&#8221; he continued, saying that he had big plans for what would happen with his show and would share what he could as time passed. &#8220;I love you guys, and Bongino Army out there, I hope you understand, I got a couple of negative comments you know, &#8216;Dan, you should have let us know.&#8217; I hope you understand &#8230; you do not ever get ahead of the President of the United States.&#8221;

Politicon 2018 – Day 1

‘It’s A Lot To Walk Away From’: Dan Bongino Chokes Up On Air Announcing Plan To Exit Radio

'It's A Lot To Walk Away From': Dan Bongino Chokes Up On Air Announcing Plan To Exit Radio

Dan Bongino

kash patel

Media

Politics

Heading into President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, there are a lot of unanswered questions about the Biden administration’s weaponization of the federal government, from its censorship of conservative media <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/biden-covid-censorship-revealed-npr-bias-probe-afternoon-update-5-3-24">during COVID</a> to the recently uncovered <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs">FEMA scandal</a>. 
While congressional Republicans have unearthed a few answers, many questions still remain. With control of the White House, the Trump administration will have a unique opportunity to investigate and potentially uncover the full extent of the weaponization and exactly which federal officials were involved. 
While there are numerous departments worthy of scrutiny, here are four the Trump administration could probe.
<h3>Targeting Political Opponents</h3>
Under Biden’s direction, peaceful pro-life protesters have been jailed, concerned parents have been investigated as “domestic terrorists,” and Trump supporters like Elon Musk have been targeted for prosecution.
In the first year of the Biden administration, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo in October 2021 calling for a crackdown on alleged threats against public school employees. The memo came after the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter in September 2021 to Biden comparing threats against school officials to domestic terrorism and hate crimes.
It was later <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1077243/garland-defends-doj-memo-despite-nsba-letter-being-withdrawn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discovered</a> that the NSBA had corresponded about the letter with the White House before the Garland memo was issued. The House Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weaponization-panel-finds-no-legitimate-basis-for-doj-school-board-memo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">later found</a> that federal law enforcement had “no legitimate basis” for the memo.
The memo prompted outrage from Republicans who said the administration was trying to intimidate parents concerned about leftist-infused curriculum.
In another example of weaponization, peaceful pro-life protesters were aggressively prosecuted by the Biden administration under a novel legal strategy. The protesters <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/six-defendants-convicted-federal-civil-rights-conspiracy-and-freedom-access-clinic-entrances" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were charged</a> with “a felony conspiracy against rights and a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) offense,” punishable by over 10 years in prison. The &#8220;conspiracy against rights&#8221; statute was first passed during Reconstruction to target violence done by the Klu Klux Klan. 
Pro-lifers from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-demonstrators-found-guilty-face-up-to-11-years-in-federal-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-89-year-old-woman-convicted-faces-over-a-decade-in-prison-for-peaceful-pro-life-protest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan</a> to Washington, D.C., were convicted on these charges and face years in prison. Multiple defendants are already in prison while more are waiting to be sentenced.
The defendants include 89-year-old Eva Edl, a survivor of a communist death camp in Eastern Europe, and Paul Vaughn, a father of 11 whose home was raided by the FBI with guns drawn early morning in October 2022. 
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chip-roy-demands-biden-harris-admin-preserve-records-of-peaceful-pro-lifers-prosecutions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanded</a> that the Biden administration preserve all records of its prosecution of the peaceful pro-life protesters to understand how the cases were brought and why.
There are countless other examples of the Biden administration going after its opponents from the DOJ’s cases <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jack-smith-moves-to-drop-cases-against-trump-over-2020-election-classified-docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">against Trump</a> to the Federal Trade Commission’s aggressive oversight of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-musk-from-the-get-go-jim-jordan-reveals-how-biden-harris-ftc-targeted-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a>. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that the FTC made increasing demands of Musk after he purchased Twitter, which he had promised to turn into a haven for free speech.
The incoming Trump administration should make every effort to expose these prosecutions and actions to reveal how Biden used his administration to target conservatives.
<h3>FEMA Skipping Homes Of Trump Supporters</h3>
The next administration will also have the opportunity to dig for answers about FEMA’s treatment of Trump supporters during relief operations. A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent report</a> broken by The Daily Wire earlier this month showed that FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington ordered workers in Lake Placid, Florida to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell stated the guidance was isolated and not indicative of a larger problem, while Washington has claimed that FEMA has a widespread policy of avoiding “politically hostile” homes.
In addition to investigations from congressional lawmakers, the agency itself is looking into it and has asked the Inspector General to conduct an independent investigation as well. During <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-what-we-learned-from-fema-chiefs-day-of-congressional-grilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testimony before House</a> lawmakers last week, Criswell deferred many of the lawmakers’ questions, saying that the investigation was ongoing.
There are still questions about why the agency didn’t appear to take any disciplinary action against Washington until over a week after a whistleblower report was filed with the Department of Homeland Security. Washington was only fired one day after The Daily Wire report on the instructions, which led to at least 20 homes being skipped.
Since then, other allegations have been made against FEMA, including a whistleblower telling the House Oversight Committee that an agency employee told a family in Georgia to remove their Trump signs from their yard.
The Trump administration could launch a full inquiry into FEMA and determine the full extent of the political bias.
<h3>Censoring Conservative Media</h3>
Another area deserving of a thorough evaluation is the Biden administration’s efforts to censor conservative media outlets, including the Daily Wire.
These revelations were made after Chairman of The House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-OH) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-releases-new-facebook-files-highlights-how-biden-admin-sought-to-suppress-daily-wire-content">released</a> a number of emails showing efforts by the Biden administration to limit the reach of conservative outlets like The Daily Wire on Facebook.
In the emails, Rob Flaherty, Biden’s censorship czar, suggested that Facebook should “change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see [New York Times], [Wall Street Journal], any authoritative news source over The Daily Wire.”
In another email, Flaherty questioned the reach of the New York Post.
“I’m curious – NY Post churning out articles every day… What is supposed to happen to that from Policy perspective. Does that article get a reduction, labels?” Flaherty asked Facebook.
This stemmed from Flaherty telling Facebook that he needed to “explain” to Biden “why there is misinfo on the internet.&#8221;
These emails, and others later released, show how closely the White House was working with Big Tech companies, and how concerned the companies were with satisfying demands from administration officials.
Aside from censoring COVID information, Biden’s State Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-and-the-federalist-sue-biden-state-department-over-censorship-effort">was sued</a> over its Global Engagement Center and attempts to censor information from domestic media.
The new Trump administration has an opportunity to investigate whether Biden participated in any additional censorship efforts and which government employees were all involved.
<h3>Spying On Financial Transactions</h3>
Earlier this year, Rep. Jordan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-flagged-terms-like-trump-maga-for-banks-to-comb-through-customer-data-jordan-says">revealed</a> how federal officials were ordering banks to comb through customer data in search of terms like “TRUMP” or “MAGA” used in transactions.
This came after the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) asked banks to help federal law enforcement identify transactions of &#8220;persons of interest&#8221; using specific typologies and Merchant Category Codes after January 6, 2021.
Other transaction keywords identified by the feds included “Cabela’s” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” along with the purchase of “religious texts” as potentially problematic.
“Despite these transactions having no apparent criminal nexus — and, in fact, relate to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights — FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors,” Jordan wrote in January. “This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans’ private transactions is alarming and raises serious doubts about FinCEN’s respect for fundamental civil liberties.”
The next administration should probe the full extent of the government’s surveillance of Americans’ financial transactions and see if similar techniques were used in other investigations or prosecutions.
At a time when trust in the government has plummeted, the Biden administration has only added to the distrust. From censoring conservative media outlets to locking up peaceful pro-lifers, Biden’s four year tenure was marked by increased government weaponization. 
President-elect Trump has an opportunity to hold federal bureaucrats accountable for their weaponization of the government.

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

In The Crosshairs: Four Ways The Biden Admin Targeted Conservatives

Biden Administration

FACE Act

Federal Government

FEMA

Jim Jordan

Pro-Life Movement

Weaponization

Vice President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kamala-harris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamala Harris</a>, who has mainly stuck to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/politics/kamala-harris-interviews-the-view-stern-stephen-colbert.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">friendly</a> interviews during her White House bid so far, will sit down with Right-leaning Fox News and its chief political anchor Bret Baier this week.
The pre-taped interview will take place in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and air on Baier&#8217;s &#8220;Special Report&#8221; at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
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Wednesday— I’ll have an exclusive interview with Vice President Harris on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpecialReport?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SpecialReport</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Ry63iNH4fW">pic.twitter.com/Ry63iNH4fW</a>
&mdash; Bret Baier (@BretBaier) <a href="https://twitter.com/BretBaier/status/1845868430282338693?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
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It comes as polling shows Harris and former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-emerson-poll-sucks-the-joy-right-out-of-kamalas-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a close race</a>.
However, Trump has the &#8220;edge&#8221; on top issues in swing states, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-harris-swing-state-poll-october-2024-c3ca9414" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> last week, and he is <a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds/2024/president" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surging</a> ahead in betting markets.
According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/business/media/fox-news-kamala-harris-interview.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>, Harris&#8217; interview with Fox News will happen shortly before airing and the network said it expects the discussion to last 25 to 30 minutes.
&#8220;This week’s appearance marks her first formal sit-down interview on the network ever,&#8221; Fox said in a p<a href="https://press.foxnews.com/2024/10/fox-news-channels-bret-baier-to-conduct-interview-with-vice-president-kamala-harris-on-special-report-this-wednesday-october-16th" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ress release</a>.
In a post to X, Baier said there were no preconditions to get the interview with Harris and no one but him will have the questions ahead of time.
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Thanks Tom &#8211; there were no preconditions to get the interview. No one has the questions ahead of time —except me. No topic is off the table. And if there is any editing -it will be very minimal for timing and will be editorially the same question and answer- we are pre taping the… <a href="https://t.co/Ci0617RuKv">https://t.co/Ci0617RuKv</a>
&mdash; Bret Baier (@BretBaier) <a href="https://twitter.com/BretBaier/status/1845900267176251734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;No topic is off the table. And if there is any editing -it will be very minimal for timing and will be editorially the same question and answer- we are pre taping the interview right before my live show Wednesday in Pa,&#8221; he added.
Harris has begun to ramp up her interview schedule in the final weeks before Election Day after largely ducking the press early in her campaign and faces claims that she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-vance-explains-why-he-doesnt-use-a-teleprompter-kamala-hardest-hit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struggles</a> without a teleprompter.
She recently participated in a slew of relatively genial interviews, including ABC’s &#8220;The View,&#8221; Sirius XM radio host Howard Stern, late-night host Stephen Colbert on CBS, and Alex Cooper’s podcast &#8220;Call Her Daddy.&#8221;
Another interview with CBS News&#8217; &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; has drawn controversy because the network deceptively edited remarks from Harris, leading to calls for more <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-senators-push-cbs-news-to-release-full-kamala-60-minutes-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transparency</a> and an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ex-cbs-news-reporters-call-for-network-to-launch-probe-in-60-minutes-scandal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation</a>.
On Sunday evening, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/billionaire-salesforce-ceo-threatens-to-yank-company-from-conservative-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marc Benioff</a>, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/benioff-puts-kamala-on-blast-for-dodging-time-interview-unlike-every-other-presidential-candidate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called out</a> Harris for refusing to do an interview with his magazine, TIME, &#8220;unlike every other Presidential candidate.&#8221;
Harris has also done a town hall with Univision and agreed to another one, <a href="https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2024/10/11/cnn-to-host-presidential-town-hall-with-vice-president-kamala-harris-from-pennsylvania/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held by</a> CNN and moderated by anchor Anderson Cooper, on October 23. And she has an <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/11/kamala-harris-detroit-michigan-visit-charlamagne-that-god-radio/75625818007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with radio host Charlamagne Tha God set for Tuesday.
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NEW &gt;&gt; VP Harris will do an interview with Fox News on Wednesday
As of today, it has been **one month** since Trump’s been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet, as he has backed out of 60 Minutes and refuses to debate again
Meanwhile Harris is willing to even go on Fox <a href="https://t.co/A9VvW0MoeX">pic.twitter.com/A9VvW0MoeX</a>
&mdash; Ian Sams (@IanSams) <a href="https://twitter.com/IanSams/status/1845862212037996606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Harris spokesman Ian Sams claimed Trump &#8220;backed out of&#8221; a &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; interview and &#8220;refuses&#8221; to do a second debate.
Trump said he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-declines-60-minutes-interview-says-cbs-owes-him-an-apology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected</a> an invite from &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; because CBS News still owes him an apology over an interview on the show in 2020 that he asserted was conducted unfairly.
And, when it comes to the debates, Trump actually pushed for multiple face-offs in September against Harris shortly after she became the Democratic Party&#8217;s nominee.
Harris refused to agree to a second one until the conclusion of their first face-off. Then she proposed a debate in October, but Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/too-far-down-the-line-trump-again-rebuffs-kamalas-push-for-another-debate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it was too late as votes were already being cast.
Trump is set to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-next-town-hall-will-have-only-women-in-the-crowd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">participate</a> in a Fox News town hall in Georgia on Tuesday with an all-female audience, and the event will air on the network on Wednesday.
Harris&#8217; running mate, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walz-lies-to-fox-host-says-he-never-claimed-theres-no-guarantee-to-free-speech-on-misinformation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">participated</a> in a number of interviews, including a &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; appearance earlier this month.
Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), Trump&#8217;s VP pick, has also hit the airwaves for the Republican ticket. He <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-vance-wrecks-abc-news-host-martha-raddatz-do-you-hear-yourself" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clashed</a> with ABC&#8217;s Martha Raddatz this past weekend.

VP Kamala Harris

Fox’s Bret Baier To Interview Kamala

2024 Election

Bret Baier

Fox News

Kamala Harris

Daily Wire host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/michael-j-knowles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> brought the receipts about Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, explaining that the vice presidential candidate doesn’t just embellish the truth, but he “lies with ease.”
Speaking on the Sirius XM “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGdJVJ5TmVs">The Megyn Kelly Show</a>” podcast, Knowles discussed this week&#8217;s VP debate between Walz and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), concluding that Walz “can&#8217;t any longer discern between truth and falsehood.”
Kelly referenced accusations of stolen valor against Walz and said Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217; running mate’s excuse for “lies is ‘I lie like everyone. Everyone lies. I&#8217;m not the only one,’&#8221; adding that’s “really what he&#8217;s telegraphing.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
“Like when he&#8217;s diagramming those sentences in the first grade, he accidentally mixed up the part where you&#8217;re supposed to say, ‘I never served in combat,’ and he substituted the one where he said, ‘I did serve in combat. I was at Tiananmen Square. My wife and I used IVF to conceive our child,’” Knowles explained, pointing out the many false narratives Walz has been caught in over the last few months.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Tim Walz Dismisses His Lies By Insulting Americans, Saying He Talks Like Everyone, w Michael Knowles" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tGdJVJ5TmVs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“He [Walz] says that everyone&#8217;s a cynical liar,” he added. “And in his defense, most of the people around him probably are cynical liars. The establishment media, the Democrat politicians, and he&#8217;s very practiced in this himself.”
“The other big takeaway, though – and it&#8217;s where I have a little sympathy for the guy…is he has no good answer here,” Knowles continued. “Because people very rarely lie a little bit. People very rarely lie about one thing and never about anything else.”
The Daily Wire host said a person either endeavors “to be honest” or they “endeavor to deceive people… I don&#8217;t know if he even knows how many times he&#8217;s visited China.” The last comment was a reference to Walz being asked in the debate about being in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre. At the debate, Walz admitted he wasn’t when it happened.
“He lies with ease, and there&#8217;s a great deal of wisdom to the old idiom. What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive,” Knowles said. “He can&#8217;t keep up with his own lies, and so he totally burned down on stage… But for the people who are criticizing his answers, what else is he going to say? The guy&#8217;s lied about all the most important things in his life. He&#8217;s lied for decades, and he continues to lie today. What&#8217;s he supposed to say other than, ‘Whoopsie daisy, you can&#8217;t trust me!’”
Kelly then labeled Walz a “serial fabulist.&#8221;
&#8220;He lied about being a retired Command Sergeant Major…He lied about carrying a weapon in war… He lied about the IVF thing when his wife had had IUI,” the host said, noting that Walz has a history of embellishing “over and over again.”
Knowles told Kelly she was being a “little nice to Tim Walz here. Embellishing is when you say 50,000 came to my rally and it was really 47,000.”
“When you say ‘I was in Tiananmen Square’ when you weren’t,&#8221; the DW host said. &#8220;When you say ‘my wife and I used IVF’ when you didn’t. When you say ‘I carried weapons in war’ and you never went to war in a combat zone. It’s just a lie.”

Megyn Kelly/Michael Knowles

Michael Knowles Says Tim Walz Doesn’t Embellish, The Guy ‘Lies With Ease’

Michael Knowles Says Tim Walz Doesn’t Embellish, The Guy 'Lies With Ease'

Megyn Kelly

The Daily Wire

Tim Walz

On Monday, author and TV host Mark Levin blistered critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, taking on President Biden and his anti-Israel regime, Biden’s Democratic Party, and the legacy media, as well as the few Republicans who have taken sides against the prime minister.
Writing on Twitter, Levin started, “I am fed up with these attacks on Benjamin Netanyahu by the Biden regime, the Democrat Party, and the American Al Jazeera media. I am fed up with the attacks from certain Republican operatives, who are trying to make a buck off the Arab countries, such as Qatar and others.”
After praising Netanyahu for his leadership in the face of his enemies, both foreign and domestic, Levin continued: “We have never, ever seen the kind of organized international campaign, headquartered in our Oval Office and State Department, and including NGOs and Democrat Party donors, target any ally head of state as we are witnessing today. It is disgusting. It is appalling.”
“And the demands that Netanyahu abandon his country&#8217;s sovereignty and well-being at the say-so of the Biden regime and its surrogates is unconscionable. Biden continues to send (Secretary of State Antony) Blinken and (National Security Advisor Jake) Sullivan to Israel to plot against its government.”
“He has put relentless pressure on Israel to effectively surrender to the terrorists who surround it,” Levin noted. “He has told Israel it must not defeat Hamas (what is victory, they ask!), they must not attack Hezbollah (which is constantly firing rockets and drones into Israel, attacking its people and infrastructure), he is using the UN and foreign governments to pressure Israel, and he has stated over and over again that after Israel surrenders to it all, he will force upon Israel a final solution, which Biden calls a two-state solution, requiring Israel to abandon 30% of its country (its ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria) to the very people who are trying to annihilate it, making it impossible for Israel to defend itself.”
Levin asserted that Netanyahu refuses to bow to Biden because he knows “this would ultimately destroy Israel.” Then Levin turned to Israel’s deadly enemy Iran and Biden’s part in helping Iran against Israel: “He (Netanyahu) is leading his country in an incredibly successful war started by Iran and its surrogate, Hamas, and funded by the Biden regime, which has enabled Iran to rebuild its economy, rearm itself and its terrorist puppets, and virtually complete its nuclear program. In fact, it is Biden who has undermined Israel&#8217;s efforts, prolonged the war and increased casualties, including the deaths of brave IDF soldiers (Biden never mentions them).”
“The Biden regime&#8217;s actions and public statements, as well as its diplomacy and coordination with a supportive media, have resulted in the spread of Jew-hatred not only in the United States, but throughout the world, the likes of which we have never seen in our own country and is reminiscent of the 1930s in Europe. And Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the rest of Terrorism, Inc., are more emboldened than ever. “
“Millions of us, patriotic Americans, Jew and Gentile alike, stand with Benjamin Netanyahu and the state of Israel,” Levin declared. “There is a reason both are extremely popular and supported in the United States, despite all the saboteurs, haters, and self-aggrandizers. And we will not be moved. We know good from evil. We know right from wrong. We know that those who hate Israel hate us, both here at home and abroad. We know that the attacks on Netanyahu are intended as attacks on Israel.”
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“We want terrorism and terrorists destroyed, period, as we have suffered from horrendous acts of terrorism and may well in the future,” he wrote. “We know that Israel is fighting not just for its own survival but for us and our country too. The Islamists tell us again and again, openly, in writing, in speeches, with mission statements, and acts of terrorism, that they intend to destroy we, the people of the United States and, in fact, the entire western world. We have no patience for those who undermine Israel so they can profit from appeasing the Arab countries.”
“We admire Netanyahu and the Israeli people. And we also know that the war on Netanyahu is led by those who wish Israel ill. The self-appointed elitists in and out of our government, as well as those in foreign capitals around the world, do not represent us. Indeed, they hate us. But we will not be fooled, silenced, or intimidated by any of them or any of this. We stand with Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu,” he concluded.
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WE STAND WITH ISRAEL AND BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
I am fed up with these attacks on Benjamin Netanyahu by the Biden regime, the Democrat Party, and the American Al Jazeera media. I am fed up with the attacks from certain Republican operatives, who are trying to make a buck off the…
&mdash; Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/marklevinshow/status/1800235230017593421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Mark Levin

Mark Levin Hammers Critics Of Netanyahu, Targets Biden, Democrats, Legacy Media

Benjamin Netanyahu

Democrats

Hamas

Israel

Joe Biden

Mainstream Media

Terrorists

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro and video journalist Kassy Akiva were presented with 2024 MRC Bulldog Awards for their outstanding work in conservative media.
The Media Research Center (MRC) presents awards to conservative journalists, columnists, and podcast hosts every year as leftist journalists get favored in the annual Pulitzer Prizes. Shapiro was honored by MRC with an “Outstanding Podcast” award, making it the second year in a row a Daily Wire host won the award after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-wins-award-for-outstanding-podcast-after-career-milestone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Walsh</a> took home the “Outstanding Podcast” title last year.
“The Ben Shapiro Show” ranks among the top news podcasts in the world and is consistently the most-listened-to conservative podcast on Apple.
Over the past year, Shapiro has been a voice for conservatives seeking to think through crises at home and abroad. The Daily Wire editor emeritus recently traveled to the U.S. southern border to produce “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-divided-states-of-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Divided States of Biden</a>,” a docu-series reporting on the chaos caused by President Joe Biden’s open border policies.
Some top moments from the past year on “The Ben Shapiro Show” include the Daily Wire host providing daily commentary on the 2024 presidential campaign, going viral for his takes on “Barbie,” and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiros-facts-tops-billboard-charts-as-best-selling-rap-single" target="_blank" rel="noopener">becoming America&#8217;s #1 rapper</a> with “Facts,” which he made in collaboration with Tom MacDonald. On the &#8220;Sunday Special&#8221; edition of his show, Shapiro interviewed Argentine President Javier Milei and cultural figures like actor Russell Brand and former ESPN anchor Sage Steele.
On his podcast, Shapiro has also covered the foreign conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas, and following Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, Shapiro traveled to the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford to debate anti-Israel students on Israel’s right to self-defense.
“In a sign of his popularity and the desire of so many to hear his takes on the latest news, radio stations across the country air his daily podcast as a radio show. A whole generation of young conservatives considers Shapiro an inspiration and points to him when asked who is the conservative voice they trust the most,” MRC said in a press release.
After joining The Daily Wire in October 2023, Akiva has focused on uncovering anti-Semitism on American college campuses, and she also traveled to Israel to give Daily Wire readers on-the-ground coverage following Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack on October 7.
Akiva’s “Outstanding Blogger” award makes her the second Daily Wire reporter to win an MRC Bulldog Award after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wires-luke-rosiak-wins-award-for-outstanding-investigative-journalist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Luke Rosiak</a> won the “Outstanding Investigative Journalism” Award in 2022.
“Since she calls Boston home, Akiva has been able to shine a spotlight on the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred at Harvard in particular, which contributed to national pressure on the university’s president, Claudine Gay, to resign,” MRC said.
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Other 2024 MRC Bulldog Awards winners included PragerU founder Dennis Prager, who won the “Outstanding Radio Talk Show Host” award, and military historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson, who won the “MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement.”
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon won “Outstanding Social Media Personality,” Washington Examiner reporter and New York Post columnist Salena Zito won “Outstanding Columnist,” and writer Peter Schweizer won “Outstanding Investigative Journalism.”
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🥁 roll please… 
We have the winners of the 2024 MRC Bulldog Awards! 
Congrats to <a href="https://twitter.com/VDHanson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VDHanson</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/SethDillon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SethDillon</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ZitoSalena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ZitoSalena</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/peterschweizer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@peterschweizer</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/kassydillon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KassyDillon</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/DennisPrager?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DennisPrager</a>! 🧵
Read more: <a href="https://t.co/hh9C3VfI9N">https://t.co/hh9C3VfI9N</a> <a href="https://t.co/Y34nw9hmjA">pic.twitter.com/Y34nw9hmjA</a>
&mdash; Media Research Center (@theMRC) <a href="https://twitter.com/theMRC/status/1787845031719477749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Ben Shapiro/Kassy Akiva

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro And Kassy Akiva Win Conservative Media Awards

Ben Shapiro

According to a new report from the Media Research Center, Google has allegedly been engaging in election interference for at least 16 years. The media watchdog group has been studying how Google’s search algorithms are used for censorship. Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham spoke with Morning Wire’s Georgia Howe about the allegations. Catch the full interview on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/texas-law-scotus-ruling-google-s-alleged-election-interference-3-20-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morning Wire</a>.
Georgia: So Megan, if these claims are true, we’re talking about four presidential cycles and another four midterms, right?
Megan: Yes, that’s a lot of elections, Georgia. The report just released by <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/gabriela-pariseau/2024/03/18/41-times-google-has-interfered-us-elections-2008" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MRC’s Free Speech America</a> arm says Google interfered in US elections 41 times since 2008. And when you take a look at Google’s donations to political parties in just the 2018 midterm elections, for example, you can see just how aligned the company is with one side of the political aisle. 96% of its employee’s political donations went to Democrats. So according to the MRC, the company, “utilized its power to help push to electoral victory the most liberal candidates … while targeting their opponents for censorship.”
In 2012, for instance, it allowed users to engage in a practice called a “Google Bomb” to target Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum. It’s kind of complicated, but it’s basically a way to smear a candidate. Google users manipulate the algorithms by associating his name with undesirable search terms on various web pages. So when you would search Santorum’s name, disparaging and even obscene results would come up.
When the practice impacted the White House’s webpage for Obama, Google fixed it. But, the platform refused to resolve the issue when Santorum’s team complained. In some instances, Google’s interference backed one Democrat over another, leaning towards the more progressive candidate, though interestingly, not in the case of Bernie Sanders vs Clinton. In 2008, Google suspended the accounts of some pro-Hillary Clinton blogs who were critical of Barack Obama. Several of those blogs were listed at justsaynodeal.com.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/texas-law-scotus-ruling-google-s-alleged-election-interference-3-20-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LISTEN: Catch the full interview on Morning Wire</a></h4>
Georgia: I’m guessing when it came time for the Clinton — Trump election, they leaned in favor of Clinton.
Megan: Definitely. Turns out the Alphabet company is also pretty good with numbers. According to data scientist and research psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein, who testified before Congress by the way, the impact of Google’s search algorithm was to “shift at least 2.6 million votes” to Clinton in 2016, though of course she still lost to Trump. But according to this it would have been by a wider margin without the Google effect.
What they are essentially alleging is Google manipulated search results to convince voters to pull the lever for Clinton. For example, everyone has used Google’s search bar before, and when you start to type in some text, Google begins to autofill suggestions. During the 2016 election, it would exclude potentially harmful autofill results for Hillary Clinton and would instead suggest things like “Hillary Clinton crime reform” or “Hillary Clinton India”. On the flip side, it would not filter results for Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders.
Google has repeatedly claimed these allegations are false. But when you to listen closely to this Project Veritas undercover recording from 2019 of Jen Gennai, the then Head of Responsible Innovation for Google, you hear a different story:
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#11 In 2019, Project Veritas released footage of Google executive, Jen Gennai, discussing “preventing the next Donald Trump situation.”
She remarked, “We’re also training our algorithms, like, if 2016 happened again, would we have, would the outcome be different?” <a href="https://t.co/4SnvqnyIx3">pic.twitter.com/4SnvqnyIx3</a>
&mdash; KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) <a href="https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1620195679674179585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Irish accent aside, she said, “We’re also training our algorithms if 2016 happened again, would we have, would the outcome be different?” So suggesting they had already begun refining their results to alter election outcomes.
She went on to say: “Elizabeth Warren is saying that we should break up Google. And like, I love her, but she’s very misguided, like that will not make it better. It will make it worse, because now all these smaller companies who don’t have the same resources that we do will be charged with preventing the next Trump situation. It’s like a small company cannot do that.”
So again, a top Google executive saying Congress should not interfere with Google’s almost total dominance of the search engine industry because only Google can prevent someone like Donald Trump from being elected.
Georgia: So what is Google saying about this?
Megan: They haven’t responded at all yet. But some well known names in the tech world are backing MRC’s findings though. Elon Musk, for instance, posted on his platform, X: ““Google interferes to help Democrats thousands of times every election season!” Musk wrote on X. “This is to be expected when their censorship (aka ‘Trust &amp; Safety’) teams have far Left political views.”
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This article understates the magnitude of the problem – Google interferes to help Democrats thousands of times every election season!
This is to be expected when their censorship (aka “Trust &amp; Safety”) teams are have far left political views. <a href="https://t.co/y36yzdzIUQ">https://t.co/y36yzdzIUQ</a>
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1769771195035984073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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And of course Google’s new AI tool came under fire recently for producing extremely biased results.
It&#8217;s also worth noting that a few weeks ago, another media analysis company, AllSides, studied Google’s news aggregator and found that <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/02/23/business/google-news-bias-skewed-even-further-left-in-2023-63-from-liberal-media-sources-only-6-from-the-right-analysis/">63 percent</a> of the news it recommended came from Left-leaning outlets and only 6 percent from right leaning outlets. And only 16 percent from outlets rated “center.”
Georgia: One of my first “wakeup moments” that caused me to be interested in politics was in 2015 or 2016 when I noticed how positive the suggested searches were for Clinton compared to Trump. Thanks, Megan.
Megan: Any time.

Google

New Report Alleges Election Interference By Google Over A 16 Year Period

2016 Election

2020 Election

Hillary Clinton

Morning Wire

Readers Pass

Social Media Bias

Twitter Files

U.S. Politics

A well-funded media ratings firm that partners with Big Tech giant Meta and seeks to influence students heavily favors Left-leaning media outlets while giving conservative media poor grades, a media watchdog group found. 
Ad Fontes, founded in 2018 as a media analysis organization, has become known for its “<a href="https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Media Bias Chart</a>,” which rates over 3,000 media outlets on bias and accuracy. The organization says on its website that it partners with Meta, along with eight advertising agencies and software companies, and advertises “media literacy” lesson plans “for your classroom or school.” Ad Fontes claims to reach a non-partisan result by having three people with differing ideological leanings review news stories before giving them a rating, but Ad Fontes founder Vanessa Otero also claims that the three reviewers agree on a single score for a news outlet “99% of the time,” nearly perfect agreement from a supposed diverse set of reviewers. 
Ad Fontes has gained media traction recently after publishing its latest media bias chart with Otero <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmRdfJao46E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appearing</a> on Fox 5 Washington, D.C., to boost her organization’s media ratings. Mediaite also reported on Ad Fontes’ new chart earlier this month, and the organization has <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/inno/stories/fundings/2023/07/24/ad-fontes-media-raises-series-a.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> raised $4.2 million ahead of the 2024 presidential election. According to <a href="https://cdn.mrc.org/static/pdfuploads/Media%20Literacy%20Firm%20Rigged%20to%20Favor%20Left-Wing%20Media_MRCReport_FINAL.pdf-1695244193394.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">findings</a> by the Media Research Center, however, Ad Fontes appears to have a bias problem of its own.
The watchdog&#8217;s study found that Ad Fontes gave 64% of the media outlets it considered to be on the Left a reliable mark, while giving only 32% of Right-leaning outlets the same label. 
“This so-called media literacy firm seems to have worked overtime to make its rating system look benevolent, but when you look deeper into the real data, it’s not. The chart offered to students and advertisers is clearly deceptive and tailor-made to create a veneer of objectivity,” said MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider. “I can see why advertisers would be induced to direct their advertising dollars to the left and why kids would be influenced not to read another article critical of liberal policies.”
Most of the mainstream outlets Ad Fontes labels on the Left, including CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and The New York Times, received reliability grades above 40 on a 64-point scale. Meanwhile, the more Right-leaning outlets such as Fox News (36.22), The Washington Examiner (34.73), The Daily Wire (32.79), and Newsmax (30.73) received less flattering reliability ratings. 
Ad Fontes gave The Washington Post a 38.37 reliability rating while “The Ben Shapiro Show” scored one of the lowest reliability ratings at 24.61, just above the 24-point mark that Ad Fontes considers “Selective or Incomplete Story/Unfair Persuasion/Propaganda.” 
&#8220;No honest American believes the Washington Post is reliable while Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire are not to be trusted,&#8221; Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Ad Fontes&#8217; whole ranking system is a lie aimed at telling Americans to trust the leftist media and not to trust anyone on the right.&#8221;
It&#8217;s ratings appear to be due to the fact that it falls on the liberal side of many news events, even when the facts tell a different story. Ad Fontes embraced Left-leaning talking points during crucial times in the past three years, saying the Wuhan lab leak theory was a “baseless” “fringe theory” and joined Big Tech platforms in censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story at the height of the 2020 election. The group also continues to give “reliable” scores to a 2021 article from Left-leaning NPR that fact-checked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and claimed masking children was effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19. Since that time, a CDC <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e1.htm?'" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> of over 90,000 elementary students <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/24/desantis-vindicated-theres-no-science-behind-masks-on-kids/?fbclid=IwAR02ynqOqnmB-P-A13rnKqswIZ0L1x-GboW693n6-saf9Xdr4ZREygtAVwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that masking children wasn’t effective. 
This bias could be a result of the political views of its own leadership. One of Otero’s top advisers, Brad Berens, actively supports Left-wing causes and Democratic candidates while advocating for former President Donald Trump to be banned from social media platforms. 
Berens, who also writes for Ad Fontes’ website, <a href="https://twitter.com/bradberens/status/1566952718471610368?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> in 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, that he hoped the decision, along with former President Trump’s “latest hijinks” would help the Democratic Party “keep both houses and extend the majority in the Senate.” Otero told The Daily Wire that Berens is &#8220;not involved in the day-to-day operations or the analysis of the individual articles.&#8221; 
But disdain for Trump at Ad Fontes seems to go beyond its advisers. The ratings firm sent out a celebratory email after Trump and his 18 Republican co-defendants were indicted in Georgia, praising the &#8220;wheels of justice.&#8221; 
“The process of bringing those at the center of a conspiracy to defraud the American people and misrepresent the good work of the officials responsible for mounting a free and fair election in Georgia had been identified by Georgia District Attorney, Fani Willis, and indicted for their alleged actions. The wheels of justice, however slow, had turned in the general direction that they are supposed to turn,” the email said. 
Otero confirmed in a phone interview with The Daily Wire that the majority of those advising and investing in the organization are Leftists but stressed that the analysts doing the day-to-day work of rating news outlets and articles are evenly divided among liberal, centrist, and conservative thought. She also said that Ad Fontes has some conservative investors, advisors, and analysts.
&#8220;The only thing &#8230; I could point you to that might allay the concerns of [conservatives]: we are really in good faith trying to mitigate our biases as much as possible,&#8221; Otero said.
The Ad Fontes founder, who started the organization after becoming disillusioned by the vitriol among friends and family members during the 2016 election, said she receives criticism from both the Right and the Left for how Ad Fontes rates media outlets.
&#8220;The nature of this work is that we&#8217;re going to get criticism from both sides,&#8221; said Otero. &#8220;You know, it&#8217;s important to us. We receive it, especially when it&#8217;s in good faith.&#8221;
The most reliable and least biased news reporting overall comes from NPR News Now (49.33), according to Ad Fontes, while the most reliable reporting on the Right comes from The Wall Street Journal (43.63). The media ratings firm punished Right-leaning outlets far more than those on the Left when considering unreliability. Only 2.9% of the media considered to be on the Left received an “unreliable” mark compared to 29% of media outlets on the Right.

Online Media Illustration Photos

Media Ratings Firm Trying To Influence What News Sites You Visit Heavily Favors Left-Leaning Outlets Over Conservative Journalism

Big tech streaming platform <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple</a> removed Blaze Media founder Glenn Beck&#8217;s nationally syndicated American culture and politics program from its iTunes platform on Wednesday for an unknown issue.
Beck, who is one of the first conservatives to venture out and create alternative media from the mainstream, announced in a <a href="https://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/1691872607820251600" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> posted on X that he received an email from the Apple Podcasts Team that &#8220;The Glenn Beck Program&#8221; had been removed after they had &#8220;found an issue with [his show] &#8230; which must be resolved before it&#8217;s available on Apple Podcasts.&#8221;
&#8220;I have a feeling these &#8216;issues&#8217; with @Apple and others will keep happening the more we&#8217;re over the target,&#8221; Beck <a href="https://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/1691873812571177405" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on his X account.
The email reportedly directed Beck to follow a link for additional details, but only repeated that Apple Podcasts removed his program.
&#8220;Well, we got that one, dummy,&#8221; Beck said. &#8220;I mean — I cannot imagine what they are — what they&#8217;re basing this one on. I mean, have we even had strikes? Nothing, right? This is crazy. Crazy.&#8221;
Beck had been preparing for another episode of his program on Wednesday when his team found out they potentially became another example of big tech companies censoring conservative programs and personalities.
&#8220;This is absolutely freedom of speech,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing that we have said that would warrant any removal.&#8221;
According to his media company, the podcast host&#8217;s next episode is titled &#8220;Trump vs. Biden: Which is the Crime Family?&#8221; The summary describes Beck&#8217;s deep dive reviewing former President Donald Trump’s fourth indictment and the implications it could have on freedom of speech while comparing it to alleged evidence revealed regarding Hunter Biden and President Joe Biden.
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&#8220;Maybe that&#8217;s what it is &#8230; maybe they&#8217;re just smoked because, you know, I&#8217;m pointing out the real crime family tonight,&#8221; he said.
Although Apple has not issued a formal response, Beck appeared to give the company the benefit of the doubt by calling it a potential &#8220;glitch.&#8221;
&#8220;But it&#8217;s amazing how we have to have a whole bunch of people point out the glitch before the glitch is found, and it&#8217;s put back,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Man, this is — this is huge.&#8221;
&#8220;I think the closer and closer we get to this election, the more and more glitches are going to happen,&#8221; he added.
Blaze Media did not return requests for comment.
BlazeTV host Steve Deace <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/1691885877100716065" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on social media, &#8220;Oh my. Even if it is a glitch, these &#8216;glitches&#8217; only seem to go one way.&#8221;
Daily Wire Co-Founder Jeremy Boreing <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyDBoreing/status/1691892131072262552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, &#8220;This must be a mistake. Glenn is one of the best men in the business and perhaps the greatest living broadcaster. Make this right.&#8221;
“The Glenn Beck Program” podcast remains available on his BlazeTV service, as well as other streaming platforms Spotify, YouTube, and Stitcher.
Six hours after Beck&#8217;s show was removed from the platform, the podcast host said Apple restored over 3000 episodes to iTunes but did not provide &#8220;clear answers&#8221; for the unknown issue.
&#8220;I want to thank everyone (on the left, right and everyone in between) who spoke up today,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/1691943416542675201" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. &#8220;I wish I had better answers from Apple on what happened, but you gave me hope that the issue of censorship is still bigger than politics.&#8221;

Key Speakers At Conservative Political Action Conference

Blaze Media Founder Glenn Beck Says Apple Removed His Podcast From iTunes Without Warning

 Apple Removes Blaze Media Founder Glenn Beck's Podcast From iTunes Without Explanation 

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