Conservative documentary filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney have <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQhWLGwdNlCPfNnnJXhNMvqdmJH?projector=1&amp;messagePartId=0.1">announced</a> a national journalism competition offering $17,500 in prize money to young reporters who uncover stories they believe mainstream media outlets have ignored.
The Shillman Journalism Prize seeks original, independent reporting and will award $10,000 to the first-place winner, $5,000 for second place, and $2,500 for third place. The competition is open to legal U.S. residents who will be under 25 on December 31, 2026.
“If you’re under 25 and you think you’ve found the story everyone else missed — or the one the media actively wants covered up — this is your moment,” McAleer and McElhinney said.
Married investigative journalists <a href="https://yaf.org/people/phelim-mcaleer/">McAleer</a> and <a href="https://yaf.org/people/ann-mcelhinney/">McElhinney</a> have reported from around the world, covering conflicts, exposing criminal networks, and holding powers to account that often get a free pass in the dominant media. Their work has also drawn threats and violence, with McAleer saying they have been “spat at, locked out, slapped, shut down, threatened with a gun, kidnapped” and faced situations where he thought he might die.
The couple said their new project is designed to inspire the next generation of journalists to pursue independent reporting as America’s public confidence in mass media <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx">falls to historic lows. </a>
“The mainstream media are biased, and their bias and activism is damaging America and the world,” McAleer said in a statement to The Daily Wire. “Too often mainstream journalists seem more interested in covering up the news than covering it. That has to change.”
The contest is looking for old-fashioned journalism — original, fact-based reporting built on interviews, documents, public records, FOIA requests, and other firsthand research. Organizers will look for stories mainstream outlets have missed, ignored, or failed to report properly.
McAleer and McElhinney have encouraged applicants to look for stories in their backyard, urging young reporters to “ask awkward questions” and uncover stories that may be hiding in plain sight.
“We want a story that hasn’t been told, or hasn’t been told properly — the kind of story that is often sitting right on your doorstep, in your town, or in your state. You don’t need to travel to exotic locations. The best stories are frequently the ones closest to home,” McAleer said.
The competition will be conducted entirely through Substack. An expert panel will select the top 10 submissions. Then, the public will vote to determine the three winners.
McAleer and McElhinney have built a reputation for advancing conservative-minded causes in the traditionally left-leaning worlds of theater and the arts. 
The Irish couple recently produced a play examining the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that was featured at the <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/theater/2025-2026/unreported-story-society-october-7/">Kennedy Center</a>. They also produced <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3722234/">Gosnell</a>: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer, a film based on the case of convicted Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.
The Shillman Journalism Prize is designed to encourage young reporters to pursue original reporting at a time when many aspiring journalists enter an industry increasingly dominated by flailing established news organizations. In 2025, Americans’ confidence in mainstream media dropped to 28% – a new low and down 12 percentage points from <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/321116/americans-remain-distrustful-mass-media.aspx">40% five years earlier</a>, according to Gallup. 
Voters across the ideological spectrum remain largely distrustful of the media, with just 8% of Republicans, 27% of independents, and a bare majority of Democrats (51%) reporting confidence in the American news media.
“Journalism doesn’t have to be dangerous or require huge resources,” McAleer said. “Sometimes the truth is simply good news that needs to be amplified. Sometimes life-changing stories are just the ones that have never been told properly — or never been told at all. And right now, those stories are everywhere.”

Conservative Filmmakers Launch Journalism Prize To Highlight Stories Mainstream Media Won’t Cover

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An anonymous user posted an impressionist painting on X a few months back and asked users to &#8220;describe, in as much detail as possible, what makes this inferior to a real Monet painting.” Viewers sounded off on the supposedly AI-generated image, criticizing the framing, choice of color, <a href="https://x.com/artprograce/status/2054306835465715961">and</a> the &#8220;slightly off&#8221; reflection of the trees. There was just one problem: The image was a <a href="https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/real-monet-ai-chaos">real</a> painting of Monet&#8217;s water lilies.
Most people are probably less successful at recognizing AI art than they think they are. When it comes to actual computer-generated imagery, people can <a href="https://www.bgsu.edu/news/online-media-newsroom/2023/12/bgsu-research-finds-people-struggle-to-identify-the-difference-b.html">identify</a> AI only about half of the time. Research suggests, however, that people still intuitively prefer human art to AI art.
In a <a href="https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-people-struggle-ai-human-art.html">study</a> conducted by Bowling Green State University, researchers found that when people looked at AI art and human-made art, they still preferred the man-made pieces even though they weren’t sure if the artwork was AI or not. People had “more positive emotions when looking at the human paintings,” according to the study. Something in us still <a href="https://business.columbia.edu/research-brief/digital-future/human-ai-art">prefers</a> human work, and this subconscious preference runs deeper than what some might call “prejudice.”
Yet as AI revolutionizes every industry, including the arts, creatives and consumers alike fear that AI will infect the artist’s world and replace skill, experience, and time with efficiency, sufficiency, and replication. I took this concern to the professionals for some guidance, and their perspectives were more hopeful than I expected.
Man-made music to our ears
Dave Clifford, a musician, publicist, and band manager for roughly 20 years, says he doesn’t generally use AI in his work when it comes to music or artwork for bands. Sometimes he&#8217;ll employ Photoshop generative functions along with simple editing. 
 
“Pretty much all the bands that I work with really kind of cherish their own creativity rather than use something like generative AI to do the creative process for them,” Clifford said.
While Clifford believes people will become more comfortable with AI as time progresses and it improves, he is not generally in favor of AI because it is “so sloppy and bad” and sometimes “disastrous.” Many bands would be affronted by the suggestion of generative AI in their work.
“There have been a couple of bands that I work with who have said outright, whenever there would have been some offers from people to create a tour poster or something like that &#8230; ‘Okay, well, as long as it doesn’t involve any AI in making it, then we’re fine with it,’” Clifford recalled.
Clifford doesn&#8217;t think AI could replace human creativity in music, saying AI is not creative itself but is something that is “doing a very poor job of replicating human creativity.”
“I don’t think that you can replace human creativity with those kinds of systems because we call it AI — it means artificial intelligence,” he said. “What it is, is just an amalgam of things that already exist. So if it’s creating collages and putting things together based upon prompting and based upon all of these other things, it’s actually not really a creative function, but it’s a tool still being used by a person that is doing it.” 
It&#8217;s not just artists rejecting AI; audiences generally don&#8217;t want to listen to computer-generated music. Clifford said he prefers a man-made melody because he enjoys the “mistakes,” which create a “closeness” with listeners.  
“I still really appreciate that human element of things and, like, in my own recordings and work in bands, I’ve always kind of kept in the mistakes that may be very obvious to listeners,” he said. “I haven’t thought like, ‘oh, let’s go back and fix that,’ or ‘do that again,’ because I kind of like being able to hear mistakes in there … it feels more like this was a real moment in time that happened, that there was, you know — you’re not going to repeat the same mistake again.”  
Perhaps AI&#8217;s encroachment into the arts is a bit of a marketing gimmick. Why are AI companies going after creative jobs and not doubling down on work in other areas, like curing cancer? 
“I think it’s because it’s something that you can sell to people a whole lot better than, ‘Hey, this is going to do your taxes for you,’ or something like that,&#8221; Clifford said. &#8220;That’s easy, but there&#8217;s nothing sexy about it, you know?”
The need for human intelligence
Joana Suleiman, the production editor of a weekly print magazine, does not believe AI is anywhere near performing the high-level journalism and custom illustrations required for the publication. She doesn&#8217;t mince words.
“AI can’t do what we do. It can’t verify what we can verify. It doesn’t have the resources and the sources that we’ve been spending years building,” Suleiman said. “It doesn’t provide context, and most modules are trained on social media. And social media is mostly very misinformed, ignorant, emotionally immature individuals, and those people are worthless in terms of training.”
She notes that it can be a research tool for writers but says diving deep into a topic requires more than a surface overview from AI. You need to “get up from the newsroom and walk outside” because most of the work in journalism that is really worth paying for “is not done inside the newsroom.”
“In terms of it being able to replace what any of us do in this industry, it’s absurd to me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I haven’t witnessed it. I haven’t seen anything that can be replaced by AI yet.”
Where AI can assist
While AI does not have the talents to replace skilled creatives, it is still an incredible tool. Ben Smith, founder of Vandelay Publishing, uses AI to help writers and other artists market their work. Vandelay Publishing works with social media marketers and other content creators to boost engagement with their platforms. 
Using AI to parse through data on Facebook and other social media platforms, Smith is a “one-person shop,” working fewer hours for a client for a good price and still providing better brands and strategies. He recalled the story of a former client who was struggling with book sales. After viewing 12 years of data on her website and analyzing past blog posts to see which did well, “we transitioned over from her blog to reposting them and remaking them and remarketing them on Facebook.” Her audience tripled in 18 months. 
With AI as the backbone of his business, Smith has developed many AI tools that took trial and error to develop. One of the mistakes people make with AI is trusting the output too quickly because AI can “hallucinate,” Smith said. 
“Challenge it, challenge it. The more you work with it, and I’ve been working on it with it on my business for — I mean, I started working with AI before I started my business. That’s how I knew this was the way to go,” he added. “It’s all about prompting. Prompting is 90% of how to use AI.”
While Smith loves OpenAI and is glad it&#8217;s available for serious and casual users, he cannot stand “AI slop,” low-quality mass-produced content that requires little human effort. Users should learn from AI when they use it, not just throw out information they took from it. 
 
“They use it for garbage. They use it for content for content’s sake,” Smith said. “They use it as a replacement for actual people, you know, graphic design, real art, drawing, painting. I’ve used it before to have some funny photos, stuff like that, but I know it’s AI. It’s not real art.”
AI has incredible potential to benefit businesses, support the sick, and explore the unknown, but the arts — music, writing, painting — should not be its focus. It&#8217;s a valuable tool for administrative and background work, but it can&#8217;t engage in artistic expression. A well-done painting has years of experience, failures, victories, and struggles behind it. It is valuable because the person’s effort and skill derived from years of work gave it value. 
That is the human experience. We strive, grow, suffer, fail, and rejoice. We gain wisdom as we stumble through life, which makes the victory all the more sweet. That is what the human soul engages with day in and day out. This soul is expressed through the arts — something sacred, and something AI can never have.
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This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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AI Is Taking Over The Arts. But Humans Still Have One Secret Weapon.

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Live cockroaches and spiders. A preserved fetal pig. A bloody Halloween mask. A funeral wreath. A book about surviving the death of one’s spouse.
These items were all sent to the home of journalists David and Ina Steiner by executives of one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms. The packages were an attempt to scare them into silence and to stop reporting on the e-commerce company’s business practices.
The Steiners sued, and after over a decade in the courts, they have won their case.
On Tuesday, eBay agreed to pay the Massachusetts couple nearly $50 million after former employees terrorized the bloggers in a 2019 harassment campaign.
Since 2012, Ina Steiner, with her husband David’s help, has hosted the newsletter eCommerce Bytes, unveiling to readers important updates about services such as Amazon and eBay.
She has been critical of many of eBay’s corporate decisions, <a href="https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/4/1554870735.html">reporting</a> in 2019 on issues such as former eBay CEO Devin Wenig earning 152 times more than normal employees.
In response, eBay employees reportedly became angered by the Steiners’ reporting and conspired to &#8220;intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them,&#8221; Fox News <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/ebay-pay-nearly-50m-after-ex-employees-allegedly-terrorized-couple-cockroach-fetal-pig-packages">reports</a>.
Some employees named in the lawsuit were former CEO Devin Wenig, former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer, and former Senior Vice President Wendy Jones.
Along with sending anonymous packages with disturbing contents, employees sent pornographic magazines addressed to David Steiner to a neighbor&#8217;s home in an attempt to smear the image of the couple in their community.
The Steiners also received a host of threatening direct messages online. The lawsuit even alleged that eBay employees tried to plant a GPS tracking device on the couple’s vehicle.
In the settlement, the Steiners are slated to receive $48.7 million in compensation. This comprises $46.15 million from eBay itself, $2 million from Wenig, $500,000 from Jones, and $50,000 from Wymer.
The company will finance $6 million in donations to various nonprofits, and Wenig will pay $1 million to a charity committed to protecting First Amendment rights on Ina Steiner’s behalf.
eBay has posted a statement disavowing the actions of its former executives and employees.
“What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible, and should never have happened,” eBay <a href="https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-statement-regarding-agreement-with-ina-and-david-steiner/">said</a> in a statement. “We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the employees who perpetrated and pled guilty to criminal charges for the misconduct against Ina and David Steiner. We also acknowledge the unprofessional tone in internal communications demonstrated, to different degrees and number, by Mr. Wenig, Mr. Wymer, and Ms. Jones.”
“We continue to extend our deepest apologies to the Steiners,” eBay added. “This agreement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and fulfills our efforts to make things right.”
The couple <a href="https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2026/7/1785201549.html">posted</a> about their win on their eCommerce Bytes website and shared the testimony of their lawyer Chris Murphy.
&#8220;This case was always about more than obtaining financial recovery,” Murphy said in the statement. “From the beginning, our clients wanted to uncover the truth, protect journalists and publishers, hold those responsible accountable, deter future corporate misconduct, and help ensure others would never have to endure what they experienced.”
“We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences,&#8221; Murphy added.
Devin Wenig has reached out to the Daily Wire and denied any knowledge of the harassment campaign.
“The harassment was deliberately done in secret and without my knowledge, as established by an independent law firm review, a federal probe, and the sworn testimony of the security employee convicted as the ‘ringleader.’” Wenig said in a statement. “This behavior is antithetical to everything I sand for and believe in.”
The Steiners are <a href="https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0JIXX8JL25WD8603EEB8JLNRDI">featured</a> in the documentary &#8220;Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal,&#8221; where they share their experiences being victims of the harassment campaign.

Photo Illustrations – GameStop Hostile Takeover Bid For EBay

Inside eBay’s Twisted Plot To Terrorize A Couple With Live Spiders And Cockroaches

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CBS News unveiled its first major slate of &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; hires under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss on Tuesday, tapping New York Times columnist Ross Douthat as the network presses ahead with its overhaul of the iconic news magazine.
Executive producer Nick Bilton announced in a memo that Douthat will join the program as a correspondent, while bestselling author and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, former VICE News and CNN journalist Gianna Toboni, and British broadcaster Trevor Phillips will serve as contributors. Former CBS Evening News anchor Norah O&#8217;Donnell, who has contributed to &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; for more than a decade, has also been elevated to full correspondent.
&#8220;An exceptional lineup of journalists will be joining &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221;, carrying on its tradition of fearless, independent and impartial reporting,&#8221; Bilton wrote. &#8220;I can&#8217;t wait for them to get started.&#8221; 
The hires are the first major on-air additions since Weiss took control of CBS News and began restructuring &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; after several longtime correspondents and senior producers departed earlier this year.
Douthat joined the Times in 2009 and has become one of the paper&#8217;s best-known conservative opinion writers. Bilton praised him as &#8220;one of the preeminent public intellectuals in America today, a thinker of uncommon rigor and a journalist of deep empathy.&#8221;
Bilton also announced that Junger, the author of &#8220;The Perfect Storm&#8221; and co-director of the Oscar-nominated Afghanistan war documentary &#8220;Restrepo,&#8221; will join the program as a contributor
Toboni, whose reporting has included investigations into ISIS, Mexican cartels, mass shootings, and the death penalty, will also join as a contributor, while Phillips — recently hired as CBS News&#8217; senior global affairs correspondent — will contribute to 60 Minutes from London. 
Bilton praised the whole group as &#8220;entrepreneurial journalists who understand how to reach modern audiences.&#8221;
Earlier this year, Weiss removed longtime executive producer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/28/bari-weiss-ousts-tanya-simon-60-minutes-favor-nick-bilton/">Tanya Simon</a> and several senior producers before dismissing veteran correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/longtime-60-minutes-reporter-fired-after-attacks-on-new-leadership">Scott Pelley</a>. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/celebrating-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/">Anderson Cooper</a> later departed the program voluntarily.
The personnel changes followed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/longtime-60-minutes-reporter-fired-after-attacks-on-new-leadership">years of criticism</a> that &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; had abandoned its reputation for impartial journalism, including backlash over its heavily edited 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which ultimately contributed to CBS parent company Paramount settling President Donald Trump&#8217;s lawsuit for $16 million.
Since taking over, Weiss has pledged to restore trust in the network while broadening the program&#8217;s appeal. Bilton, a former technology journalist and author who was tapped to lead &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; has likewise promised to modernize the nearly six-decade-old broadcast without sacrificing its journalistic standards.
&#8220;My responsibility is not just technological transformation,&#8221; Bilton previously told staff. &#8220;It is also our trust with the public. Above all, that means a commitment to fairness—in story selection, in the edit room, and in the broadcast.&#8221;
Season 59 of &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; is scheduled to premiere September 13.

Preparations Ahead Of Vice Presidential Debate

CBS News Shakeup Continues As ’60 Minutes’ Adds New Correspondents

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Former CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin has gone from interviewing political leaders to sleeping with them, then blogging about it.
Baldwin, 47, spent more than a decade behind the anchor desk and in the field at CNN. But since her ouster in 2021, Baldwin has taken to posting her own thoughts via Substack — and the most recent entry details her novel forays into &#8220;casual sex.&#8221;
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In the entry, Baldwin said that she&#8217;d recently tried a dating app — and had &#8220;lasted approximately three minutes&#8221; before she deleted it and moved on, or so she thought.
&#8220;Very recently, I gave it another shot,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Why? Maybe I wanted a distraction. Maybe I like to kiss. Maybe I’m a grown-ass woman who can do whatever the hell she wants. This time I made it&#8230; five whole days.&#8221;
And then &#8230;
&#8220;But here’s what’s fascinating. Over the last month or so, I’ve had the opportunity to sleep with four different men. This is not a humblebrag. Nor have I suddenly become Samantha Jones. (Though if that’s your lane&#8230; Do you, boo.),&#8221; she said, referencing the hyper-sexual character played by Kim Cattrall in HBO&#8217;s &#8220;Sex and the City.&#8221;
She then went on to describe the men.
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I wonder what former head of state Brooke Baldwin is having “casual sex” with?
Trudeau is taken&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/r7DcoQy9F1">pic.twitter.com/r7DcoQy9F1</a>
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) <a href="https://x.com/SteveKrak/status/2079556787439583613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;One literally flew in just to take me to dinner and spends his days trying to save our democracy one congressional district at a time,&#8221; she said, adding, &#8220;One used to run a country. One is just &#8230; hot. That’s all you’re getting for now.&#8221;
Baldwin pivoted back to &#8220;Sex and the City&#8221; briefly, comparing herself instead to Sarah Jessica Parker&#8217;s character Carrie Bradshaw because she was sleeping with men and then blogging about them.
Baldwin&#8217;s &#8220;casual sex&#8221; entry came just weeks after another <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/06/media/fired-cnn-anchor-brooke-baldwin-comes-forward-with-shocking-sexual-assault-account/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_medium=social">post</a> detailing a sexual assault she said she experienced when she was just 20 years old.
&#8220;I woke up on the cold, hard bathroom tile floor of my Los Angeles hotel room with a man I did not know,&#8221; she wrote, adding, &#8220;For years, I did not have language for what I believed may have been done to me.&#8221;

2018 DVF Awards

Former CNN Star Reduced To Posting Risqué Photos, Blogging About Sex Life

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In 1972, Richard Nixon was re-elected with over 60% of the popular vote. Just a few years later, he left office as the most disgraced president in history.
His resignation cemented his legacy as one of scandal, and for half a century Nixon has been associated with Watergate: “I am not a crook.”
But something’s happening online that may once and for all disprove Fitzgerald’s dictum that there are no second acts in American lives. Across social media, Tricky Dick is blowing up — with memes, edits, and merchandise marketed at Gen Z. Thirty-two years after his death, America’s 37th president is popular again. And for the first time ever, he’s cool.
“It’s frightening and terrifying and sad,” Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/story/richard-nixon-instagram-rebrand?srsltid=AfmBOorjoaPd4liMlRnVUqra1C4G1YthU_2gr9hkeN9gLabyY8n1M1JN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Vanity Fair. </a>“It’s part of the whole process of history being rewritten and obliterated.”
The Vanity Fair piece, titled “Richard Nixon’s Instagram Redemption Is Perfect for Our Post-Truth World,” is a pearl-clutching jeremiad straight out of Joe Scarborough’s Id. For 2,000 words, Wine-Banks and Watergate mastermind-turned-informant John Dean assert Nixon’s villainy while cautioning that the Nixon Foundation’s attempt at rehabilitation is some kind of conspiracy to make Donald Trump’s “lies” acceptable.
For those of us who only learned about Nixon as a historical figure — that is to say, at least half of the country — it’s not hard to imagine this conspiracy. After all, that’s what Nixon was about: Watergate, of course, but also the Oval Office recordings, Kissinger’s scheming diplomacy, and the Committee to Re-Elect the President, infamously abbreviated to CREEP. Surely some shadowy cabal of Republican elites were behind this social media blitz.
But the truth is simpler, and to the extent that there is a conspiracy, it’s among Nixon’s opponents. The guys behind the memes are just doing their job. They happen to be really good at it. And like the man whose legacy they steward, they’re now being attacked for their success.
James Byron was named <a href="https://www.nixonfoundation.org/foundation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">president and CEO</a> of the Nixon Foundation in 2021, at the ripe age of 28. A history major who briefly served as an advisor to the Archivist of the United States, Byron says this is his dream job. It’s clear when you talk to him that this is an understatement.
Byron is hardly alone. The Nixon foundation team is excited to tell the story about America’s most misunderstood president. Nowhere is this clearer than with Chris Barber, the Foundation’s 35-year-old marketing director and the man behind the memes.
Hearing Barber’s age is likely a shock to anyone who’s seen his videos, which are the most Gen Z things of all time. Smash cuts of Nixon speeches overlaid with TikTok rap and strobe light transitions dominate the Foundation’s Instagram page and are frequently shared on X. In the comments section, Zoomer argot abounds in praise of Dick.
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Among you young men, there may be a Vice President Nixon! <a href="https://t.co/7tqj0Lltmq">pic.twitter.com/7tqj0Lltmq</a>
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) <a href="https://x.com/nixonfoundation/status/2064745211390304270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
“Aura farming from the grave is crazy,” writes one commenter. “Someone is on one at the Nixon foundation and I&#8217;m thrilled,” adds another. “This shit is in my Spotify liked list holy moly.”
Thanks to Barber’s edits, the Nixon Foundation has racked up 250 million views across social media platforms since October 2023. Subscribers climbed from 65,000 to 450,000 in that same window. Today, over half of the Foundation’s Instagram audience is under 35.
But the Nixon renaissance is not merely an online phenomenon. Nixon Library attendance is up 30% year-over-year. This May the Foundation sold more merchandise than they’ve sold in 10 years. When the Foundation dropped a line of “Nixon–Maxxing” hats, they sold out in 90 minutes. So did the second order the Foundation scrambled to release. They sold 200 hats in total, completely clearing the shelves.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Nixonmaxxing hats sold out in a few hours.
Restock alerts here → <a href="https://t.co/dh622ATSqx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://t.co/dh622ATSqx</a> <a href="https://t.co/lp503q1lEr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/lp503q1lEr</a>
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) <a href="https://x.com/nixonfoundation/status/2022481502978843056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">February 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
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It’s tempting to chalk this whole thing up to Gen Z being ironic. And of course, that’s part of it. But Vanity Fair isn’t dragging out John Dean to sound the alarm on a mere social media bit. Something else is happening here, something deeper — and it has people panicking.
Perhaps the best way to understand this is to migrate over to the Nixon Foundation’s YouTube channel, where memes give way to clips of Nixon’s speeches. Here the videos — which frequently amass more than 3 million views — are not cheeky or funny. They’re just Nixon: Nixon talking about Bill Clinton, Nixon being prescient on Russia and Ukraine, Nixon waxing philosophical about what constitutes a good life.
People may get pulled in by the edits, but Nixon himself is holding their attention. That’s not surprising. If one is interested in Congress, communism, and China, to say nothing of the presidency and the media, one is de facto interested in Nixon. He helped shape and was shaped by all of those institutions. It’s impossible to understand them, or our time, without understanding him.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Honorable Richard M. Nixon <a href="https://t.co/xjDbQPvqa1">pic.twitter.com/xjDbQPvqa1</a>
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) <a href="https://x.com/nixonfoundation/status/2057193199924613252?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2026</a></blockquote>
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For Nixon’s critics, this is the problem. Conventional wisdom and AP U.S. History textbooks hold that you’re allowed to say one good thing about Nixon: he opened China. Otherwise, it’s all stagflation, pancake makeup, and burglary. Americans cannot be allowed to appreciate Nixon the man in full because doing so would shatter the totalizing impulse that has dominated American politics since Woodward and Bernstein first went to press.
This point really cannot be overstated: the Nixon revival is a threat not because it gives cover to Trump to lie, cheat and steal, but because it could make Americans realize that the people they trust to render judgement on politicians are not always honest brokers.
And God forbid people start looking at Watergate with fresh eyes. They might learn that Bob Woodward never actually used the codeword “Deep Throat” for Mark Felt, and that his book agent made it up to sell more copies of “All The President’s Men.” They might learn that the reason Woodward and Carl Bernstein never revealed Felt’s identity was because he was a career FBI agent with an axe to grind against Nixon, who passed Felt over for the director job. They might learn that Felt was the mastermind behind COINTELPRO, a controversial FBI program to infiltrate and dismantle radical Left groups.
<div id="attachment_1116183" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1116183" class="wp-image-1116183 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-105334198.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="854" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-105334198.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-105334198-300x250.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-105334198-691x576.jpg 691w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-105334198-768x641.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Ben Bradlee and Bob Woodward (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)</div>
They might also discover that Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee had serious misgivings about Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting. In 2012, New York Magazine — no Nixonian rag, to be sure — published excerpts from <a href="https://nymag.com/news/features/ben-bradlee-2012-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bradlee’s personal papers</a> in which he said “There’s a residual fear in my soul that that isn’t quite straight.”
“Dealing with Woodward and Bernstein became — as they became more skilled in subterfuge, as they became more skilled in double meanings and triple meanings and quadruple, it became quite hard to deal with … Their great habit was to come around about 7:30 at night to say they had a helluva story … because they thought the guard would be down and they could slip it into the paper without the usual sort of grilling.”
The author of that piece, Jeff Himmelman — who discovered the papers while writing Bradlee’s authorized biography — confronted Woodward about the quote. To put it succinctly, Woodward freaked out. Later Himmelman found that the tape containing those comments, one in a series of 13, had disappeared. He asked Bradlee if he thought Woodward had taken it. “Maybe,” Bradlee laughed.
That piece is 14 years old and I can guarantee you most Americans have never read it. The fact is, the media industrial complex has — in an ironic twist, given the subject matter — worked to keep the full truth of Watergate under wraps. Because Watergate is the modern media’s foundational myth. Before Woodward and Bernstein, journalism largely consisted of reporting facts, and investigative journalism meant exposing real scandals in the public interest.
Watergate changed that. From that moment on, investigative journalism became inherently political, and politicians became trophies to hunt. Journalists’ political sympathies being what they are, this necessarily meant that Republicans were always in the crosshairs. To interrogate Watergate is to interrogate the very foundations of our media and the way we see politics. There’s a reason political scandals get the “-gate” suffix. For the status quo to hold, Watergate must be a triumph, and Bob Woodward must be a hero. Which means Nixon must be the villain.
<div id="attachment_1116185" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1116185" class="wp-image-1116185 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-517354418.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="687" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-517354418.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-517354418-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-517354418-859x576.jpg 859w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-517354418-768x515.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Getty Images</div>
For a while, it seemed that this would always be the case. But then, during the first Trump administration, Americans saw for the first time what the “deep state” really was. Not some imagined rightwing boogeyman but an actual, active network of entrenched bureaucrats willing to subvert a president to push their own political agendas.
The veil dropped. If this happened now, people realized, it could have happened then. Suddenly old doubts became new. The idea that Nixon was targeted by the bureaucracy, which political scientist <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.1992.9962930" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Marini</a> first argued in 1992, was back on the table. The fact that Nixon said his wiretaps were only necessary to combat a wiretapping campaign launched against him and his aides — which historian James Hougan first revealed in his 1984 book “Secret Agenda&#8221; — was put into the light earlier this year when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/opinion/trump-nixon-watergate-radford.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Rosen exposed</a> the long-buried grand jury hearing where Nixon explained the situation.
In 2025, Bill Murray appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience. Years earlier, Woodward published a book about Murray’s friend, the late comedian John Belushi. Remarking on the book’s myriad falsehoods, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/03/media/bill-murray-quips-bob-woodward-couldve-framed-nixon-for-watergate-because-of-inaccurate-book-on-john-belushi/">Murray told Rogan</a> “I read like five pages &#8230; and I went, ‘Oh my God. They framed Nixon.'&#8221;
Murray’s joke gets at something real. Pull at one thread and the sweater unravels. Start noticing and it’s hard to stop. The Nixon renaissance is about reevaluating the narrative we’ve been fed about our history, our government, and our media, sure, but it’s also the result of a curious drive that springs up naturally when something that for so long has been off limits is suddenly placed on the table.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
55 years ago, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam was observed across the United States. President Nixon’s response was firm: “Under no circumstances will I be affected whatsoever by it.” <a href="https://t.co/6gcUBE729i">pic.twitter.com/6gcUBE729i</a>
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) <a href="https://x.com/nixonfoundation/status/1978879148669178163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
It’s especially clear why Gen Z would be excited about this prospect. They learned the standard “Nixon bad” narrative from teachers who themselves only knew this one-dimensional Nixon. But more generally, Gen Z has every reason to question the “truths” they’ve been fed. They came of age during COVID lockdowns and peak woke, and have now seen those movements and the people who pushed them collapse in disgrace. Their generation’s drive to question authority and push the bounds of acceptable thought has led them to embrace people like Hasan Piker and Nick Fuentes, figures whose ideas threaten the foundation of our democracy.
But this has also led them to praise the aura of a self-made California Quaker who dedicated his life to public service and remained in the arena even after the people and country he fought for rejected him time and again.
Richard Nixon always seemed like something from a bygone age, always just a few steps behind where America was trending. But perhaps, like so much else about Nixon, we got it wrong. Maybe Nixon wasn’t a relic come too late, but a visionary come too early. Maybe his time is now.

Untitled design – 2026-06-20T134717.418

How The Kids Learned To Love Richard Nixon

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Over the past decade, the biggest news outlets in our country have resorted to reporting that is tainted by their journalists’ personal beliefs, regardless of political affiliation. Apparently, the virtue of objective reporting has become a thing of the past. Being a student at the Missouri School of Journalism has shown me that the main contributor that often doesn’t get the attention it deserves is the dwindling standards of journalistic ethics.
In one of my core journalism classes this past semester, my professor argued that “objectivity harms,” claiming that the ideal itself is essentially dead in the media today. This claim allowed her to justify the uncritical imposition of her own beliefs on a class of nearly 200 students. The irony was hard to miss. The course, Cross Cultural Journalism, was designed to teach students how to represent different groups fairly and accurately in the media. However, it became clear during the week on International Politics and Conflict that this was not the lesson being taught.
Instead of discussing the various approaches that journalists have taken to represent international powers and explain their conflicts, class was spent watching a biased documentary about a Palestinian mayor. After what can only be described as a <a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-firsthand-look-at-the-anti-israel-bias-in-college-classrooms/">problematic class discussion</a>, in which my professor pushed the genocide libel and allowed classmates to yell at one another to voice opposition, she decided to invite the filmmaker for a Q&amp;A.
At one point in his discussion, the filmmaker said he wouldn’t have been able to make this film after October 7 because it was “made for an audience that no longer exists.”
He explained that the documentary was made for those who were either neutral or uneducated about the complexities of the conflict, and even though many of his scenes presented opinions that demonized Israel, his attempt at objectivity during our discussion was refreshing. I could agree with him that the discourse on the conflict has lost a certain capacity for neutrality, and therefore the audience his film was intended to serve.
Having a person who seemingly has strong opinions critical of Israel restrain himself from pushing his own beliefs onto a group of students gave me a chance to find common ground. My professor, however, took a different approach.
Throughout the dialogue, she repeatedly inserted her own political opinions. When discussing the current status of former Palestinian mayor, Musa Hadid, she asked rhetorically, “There’s still a Ramallah?” She also repeatedly minimized Hamas’s <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47754">part</a> in the beginning of the war, often trying to shift the blame to Israel or oversimplifying the whole issue.
In doing so, she transformed the class into another exercise in reinforcing preconceived anti-Israel beliefs. More importantly, it showcased the extreme bias my professor holds, her disregard for journalistic integrity, and the influence professors wield in their classrooms.
My earlier negative experience of voicing an unpopular opinion convinced me to stay quiet this time around. Expressing my beliefs didn’t seem worth the trouble.
If this class were taught by a responsible professor, it would have allowed for a multitude of ideas and interpretations, capitalizing on the fact that students come from different backgrounds, political ideologies, and socioeconomic statuses to simulate the kind of audience we will be writing for as prospective journalists.
The lesson implicitly being taught here is that if a journalist believes strongly enough in a narrative or a specific side of an issue, the journalistic ethics we’ve been taught can be bent or altogether forgotten to fit that narrative. At best, this kind of subpar journalism produces an uninformed society. At worst, it empowers activist movements that cause more harm than good.
I hope my peers eventually come to understand the power journalists hold and strive to act responsibly. All stories have more than one side, and it’s our duty as journalists to explore each perspective when forming personal beliefs.
***
Leore Tal is a contributing writer for The College Fix, a Journalism and Political Science student at the University of Missouri, and an undergraduate Fellow with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CAMERA.

RP – Journalisim Baking Bias In Class

How Journalism Schools Are Baking Bias Right Into The Cake

DW Opinion

Hamas relies on two strategies to wage its war of annihilation against Israel: heinous brutality and PR from sympathetic Westerners. It tries to make Israelis’ lives hell in hopes that the Jews will simply give up on living in their ancestral homeland, and then maximizes Palestinians’ suffering — real and imagined — so the West will force Israel to stop fighting the terrorists bent on its destruction. Re-arm and repeat.
On those criteria, the State-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO) had a good week last week. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof preempted a painstakingly researched report on the unfathomably cruel barbarism Hamas inflicted on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, by publishing an essay on Israel’s “systematic sexual violence…widely practiced as part of an organized state policy” against Palestinians. If Israel does indeed train dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners, then perhaps it’s fair to conclude, as Kristof did, that “The horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7 now happens to Palestinians day after day.”
Such a conclusion does exceptional PR for Hamas. Drawing an explicit moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel, it is designed to cause Americans to abandon their support for the Jewish state, a crucial stratagem for the terrorist group in its long war of attrition.
Perhaps that’s not a coincidence. At least two of Kristof’s sources for the essay appear to be Hamas-affiliated. If so, Kristof has likely committed a serious federal crime.
American anti-terrorism laws are designed to be extremely broad. Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 to prohibit the provision of “material support” to designated FTOs. Material support includes many things, including money, personnel, and in-kind benefits known as “services.”
Our material-support laws can even criminalize some behavior you might expect to be protected by the First Amendment. In the famous 2010 case, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the Supreme Court ruled that even providing legal advice to a designated FTO could be prosecuted — even if the advice only helped the terrorist group engage in legitimate, non-criminal activity. A 6-3 Court reiterated Congress’s finding that terrorist groups “are so tainted by their criminal conduct that any contribution to such an organization facilitates that conduct.”
The Court took pains to emphasize that “independent advocacy” for a cause is protected freedom of speech, but not all speech necessarily counts as independent: “a person of ordinary intelligence would understand the term ‘service’ to cover advocacy performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization.” Such advocacy could be criminally prosecuted.
That appears to describe exactly what Kristof did. His advocacy clearly provides an important service to Hamas — a crucial part of its criminal enterprise, even if the service itself would not be a crime if done independently. That much is clear from Kristof’s reliance on a group called Euro-Med, which provided the quote about Israel’s “state policy” of authorizing “sexual violence” and other grotesque details Kristof retells as fact.
Kristof calls Euro-Med “critical of Israel.” That understates it a bit. Euro-Med has been the source of a host of conspiracy theories about Israel, including the accusation that Israel has been <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/investigation-must-be-opened-israels-potential-use-banned-thermal-weapons-which-cause-victims-bodies-melt-or-evaporate-enar">vaporizing</a> Palestinians and digging up graves to <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/5982/Int%25E2%2580%2599l-committee-must-investigate-Israel%25E2%2580%2599s-holding-of-dead-bodies-in-Gaza%25E2%2580%258B">harvest</a> Palestinian organs. If that seems like the kind of Big Lie straight out of Hamas’s playbook — and the kind that could start a rumor about Israel training dogs to rape prisoners — that’s no coincidence.
Euro-Med’s current and former chairmen have been <a href="https://nbctf.mod.gov.il/he/Announcements/Documents/%25D7%2599%25D7%259C%25D7%25A7%25D7%2595%25D7%2598%2520%25D7%2594%25D7%25A4%25D7%25A8%25D7%25A1%25D7%2595%25D7%259E%25D7%2599%25D7%259D%25206719%2520-%2520%25D7%25A2%25D7%259E%25D7%2595%25D7%2593%25202234.pdf">listed</a> as Hamas operatives for over a decade. Its founder, Ramy Abdu, has been a regular panelist at Hamas events, often appearing alongside senior Hamas leaders, including Osama Hamdan. Abdu’s brother-in-law was a known Hamas operative; his brother was recently arrested in Italy for funneling money to Hamas.
The repeated uncritical quotations of Euro-Med are suspicious enough. But the kicker is the first-named source in Kristof’s piece. Sami al-Sai claims he was sexually assaulted by Israeli prison guards after he was detained in 2024. What Kristof does not mention is that al-Sai was detained <a href="https://cpj.org/data/people/sami-al-sai/">for being a member of Hamas</a>. Al-Sai has <a href="https://x.com/HonestReporting/status/2054300908637557231?s=20">admitted</a> that he has done projects on Hamas’s behalf. Even other Palestinian groups have accused him of serving as a recruiter for the terrorist group. Not giving readers a sense of al-Sai’s background, which is quite relevant to his reliability, reflects poorly on Kristof’s journalism. But more so, meeting with a member of Hamas before advocating on his, and by extension, his organization’s behalf could be prosecuted as a criminal offense.
To be clear, Kristof does not admit to working together with Euro-Med in any way, so it would be difficult to prove material support for terrorism through Euro-Med on the basis of the existing public record. Further investigation could turn up evidence of closer collaboration. But Kristof’s meetings with al-Sai and subsequent advocacy that explicitly and repeatedly draw moral equivalencies between Hamas and Israel in a way that advances Hamas’s interests may be enough to warrant a material support prosecution. Whether Kristof’s essay constitutes a crime may come down to whether al-Sai is a member or representative of Hamas. The public record suggests there may be enough evidence to convince a jury.
To many Americans, this suggestion will seem like a massive First Amendment violation. How can an essay constitute a crime? The answer is that the First Amendment does not do what so many Americans think it does. It does not protect all expressive conduct, or even all journalism. Significant national security concerns, such as starving terrorist groups of all support, can outweigh protections for speech. Indeed, a hypothetical prosecution of Kristof is not far off from what Holder contemplates. And as the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/us/don-lemon-plea-minnesota-church-protest-case.html">made clear</a>, no one gets a free pass to commit illegal activities by claiming journalist immunity.
Aiding the world’s most heinous organizations is illegal, no matter what prestigious institution you work for, or whether your aid came in the form of words. You can engage in independent advocacy, but as soon as you start meeting with apparent members of terrorist groups, you have invited legal trouble. Whether that trouble comes in the form of a criminal indictment remains to be seen — but if it does, no one should be terribly surprised.   
***
Tal Fortgang is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Is The New York Times Employing A Terrorist Sympathizer?

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The Daily Wire&#8217;s &#8220;Morning Wire&#8221; podcast received the coveted &#8220;Outstanding Podcast&#8221; award, and Daily Wire immigration reporter Jennie Taer won the title of &#8220;Outstanding Reporter,&#8221; the Media Research Center announced on Tuesday.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/morning-wire">Morning Wire</a> was praised for its &#8220;concise, professionally produced alternative to legacy media&#8221; as the daily podcast has remained consistent with its promise to deliver &#8220;15 minutes of what matters, nothing that doesn&#8217;t.&#8221;
&#8220;Featuring reporting from on-the-ground journalists and interviews with expert guests, hosts Georgia Howe and John Bickley guide listeners through the day’s most important stories without the ideological filter common in traditional outlets,&#8221; MRC said.
Since 2021, Morning Wire has covered the biggest stories around the world in a common-sense approach to news. Since then, Morning Wire has expanded into providing evening updates, weekend interviews, and deep dives.
Daily Wire reporter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/jennie-taer">Jennie Taer</a>, who has extensively covered illegal immigrant crime and President Donald Trump&#8217;s deportation operation, was recognized &#8220;as a leading voice in immigration reporting.&#8221; MRC awarded Taer for her coverage of the migrant gang crisis in Aurora, Colorado, which she also <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/09/12/us-news/inside-the-migrant-gang-warzone-of-aurora-colorado/">covered</a> for The New York Post before joining The Daily Wire. Taer was also recognized for her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-day-in-the-life-of-minneapolis-ice-agents">reporting</a> at the frontlines of Trump&#8217;s deportation effort in Minneapolis, where she <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=4PZjZYETyKI&amp;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fa-day-in-the-life-of-minneapolis-ice-agents">spent a day</a> with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the height of the administration&#8217;s operation in the Twin Cities.
“This year’s Media Research Center Bulldog Award winners stand in stark contrast to the elitist media’s herd mentality,” said MRC President David Bozell. “These courageous journalists refuse to follow the pack, choosing instead to deliver truth over narrative, facts over favoritism, and accountability over activism. They represent the best of American journalism — independent, fearless, and committed to informing the public rather than manipulating it.”
The Media Research Center presents awards to conservative journalists, columnists, and podcast hosts each year. The Daily Wire is the only organization that has won in each of the five years that MRC has handed out MRC Bulldog Awards, NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck <a href="https://x.com/curtishouck/status/2051671557307572530?s=46">pointed out</a>.
In 2025, former Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist won MRC&#8217;s &#8220;Outstanding Blogger&#8221; award for his reporting on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-investigative-reporter-spencer-lindquist-honored-for-colony-ridge-reporting">Colony Ridge</a> in Texas. In 2024, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro and journalist Kassy Akiva were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-daily-wires-ben-shapiro-and-kassy-akiva-win-conservative-media-awards">named</a> the winners of the &#8220;Outstanding Podcast&#8221; and &#8220;Outstanding Blogger&#8221; awards, respectively. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh was awarded &#8220;Outstanding Podcast&#8221; in 2023, and Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak won the &#8220;Outstanding Investigative Journalism&#8221; award in 2022.
Other winners for this year&#8217;s MRC Bulldog Awards include Dana Loesch for &#8220;Outstanding Radio Talk Show Host,&#8221; Douglas Murray for &#8220;Outstanding Columnist,&#8221; and Washington, D.C., local news reporter Nick Minock for &#8220;Outstanding Investigative Journalist.&#8221;

Daily Wire Snags Two Awards For ‘Outstanding’ Podcast And News Reporting

Awards

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A newly introduced California bill meant to &#8220;protect&#8221; immigration support services is instead raising concerns that it could hinder independent journalism. In an era of citizen-driven accountability and viral exposés, some worry the measure could shield companies accused of fraud from public scrutiny.
Nicknamed by critics as the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” Assembly <a href="https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB2624/id/3371241">Bill</a> 2624, introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, the wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, would establish a confidentiality program for immigration service providers who face &#8220;threats of violence or harassment from the public.&#8221; 
The bill would also &#8220;prohibit a person from posting on the internet or social media &#8230; the personal information or image of a designated immigration support services provider, employee, volunteer, or patient, or other individuals residing at the same home address.&#8221; Violations could result in fines up to $10,000 or up to one year in jail.
Critics, including Republican Assembly member Carl DeMaio, believe the bill could be leveraged to block investigative reporting and “silence citizen journalists exposing fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.&#8221;
&#8220;Instead of fixing the fraud problems being uncovered, Sacramento politicians are trying to shut down the people exposing them,&#8221; DeMaio <a href="https://ad75.asmrc.org/2026/04/13/ca-democrats-advance-stop-nick-shirley-act-to-criminalize-investigative-journalism/">said</a>.
&#8220;AB 2624 would allow activists and taxpayer-funded organizations to demand the removal of video evidence — even if it captures misconduct in plain view — and threatens journalists with massive financial penalties,&#8221; he added. &#8220;That’s not about public safety — it’s about protecting powerful interests.&#8221;
Nick Shirley, an independent journalist known for viral videos exposing alleged Somali daycare fraud in Minnesota, recently continued his work in <a href="https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2033708929398845886">California</a>, igniting an online <a href="https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2042411675307971061">feud</a> with Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
In response to the bill, Shirley <a href="https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2043756610955423782">posted</a> to X, &#8220;Under AB 2624, government-funded entities like the Somali “Learing” Daycare centers would be protected from being exposed if they operated inside California.&#8221;
&#8220;The enemy truly is within. When our politicians would rather protect fraudsters and illegal migrants, it’s time for us to stand up or face mass oppression from the traitors who &#8216;rule&#8217; over us,&#8221; he added.
Bonta, however, rejected claims that the bill targets journalism. In a recent <a href="https://x.com/AsmMiaBonta/status/2044229820968796573">video</a>, she said, “People who work to help immigrant communities should not have to fear being doxxed for doing so.”
She said the bill is designed to shield workers from having their personal information publicly exposed and to provide legal tools to prevent and respond to targeted harassment.
“If MAGA can’t tell the difference between journalism and doxxing, that’s on them, because on my bill, there are no provisions related to journalism or fraud. This bill does not infringe on the First Amendment,” she said.

Activists Demonstrate Against ICE In New York City

California Bill Could Criminalize Fraud Reporting, Republicans Warn

california

fraud

Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore is attacking his state&#8217;s largest newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, for investigating his political record and probing potential falsehoods concerning his upbringing and military service.
The Baltimore Sun is collaborating with sister television station Sinclair to scrutinize Gov. Wes Moore as he gears up for reelection and weighs a 2028 run for the White House, <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/04/05/2026/marylands-biggest-newspaper-is-going-after-the-governors-2028-campaign?utm_medium=media&amp;utm_campaign=flagshipnumbered1&amp;utm_source=newslettercta">Semafor reported</a>.
The investigative series, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/tag/spotlight-on-maryland/">Spotlight Maryland</a>, includes FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun. These outlets will examine whether Moore exaggerated his military service and investigate the athletic scholarships he received in college.
Reporters with Spotlight Maryland have exchanged tense emails with Wes Moore&#8217;s staff, citing frustration over what they describe as a lack of transparency.
“Our news team will continue pursuing this matter until they are satisfied that there is either no story &#8211; or until further investigation shows that events did not occur as they should have,” the team wrote in one letter to Moore’s office <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/04/05/2026/marylands-biggest-newspaper-is-going-after-the-governors-2028-campaign?utm_medium=media&amp;utm_campaign=flagshipnumbered1&amp;utm_source=newslettercta">obtained by Semafor</a>. “If our team finds the latter, they will report that. … We are also prepared to present our findings and concerns to the Secretary of the Army’s office; and if gets to that point, we fully expect it will have become a national level news story requiring the Army Secretary’s attention.”
Moore’s team has complained that the investigation is &#8220;needlessly hostile and politically motivated,&#8221; according to Semafor.
Then, the liberal governor ran to MS NOW.
&#8220;The Baltimore Sun used to be our paper of record,&#8221; Moore <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jutl4tq6nqhumm5exzk52f5t/post/3mixau63lak2m">told former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s now become the paper of the right-wing.&#8221;
Moore complained that in 2024, media executive David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/01/15/baltimore-sun-media-sold-david-d-smith/">bought the paper</a>.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve seen how their readership continued to decline, but it&#8217;s happened because you&#8217;ve had a MAGA billionaire who is now currying favor for the President of the United States,&#8221; Moore said.
The liberal governor added that he was &#8220;deeply proud&#8221; of his military service and claimed nobody in the U.S. Army questions his integrity.
In 2024, The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/us/politics/wes-moore-bronze-star.html">New York Times</a> reported that Moore falsely claimed on a 2006 White House fellowship application that he had been awarded a Bronze Star for his military service while deployed in Afghanistan.
&#8220;The soldiers I served with don&#8217;t question my integrity,&#8221; Moore said. &#8220;But we are seeing how the right wing and these right-wing billionaires like David Smith is then using his wealth to be able to manipulate local media.&#8221;
Spotlight on Maryland executive producer and managing editor <a href="https://x.com/candynotcandace/status/2041903427786068360?s=20">Candy Woodall called out</a> Democrats for &#8220;putting in a lot of work to discredit a series before it&#8217;s even started running.&#8221;
&#8220;This is standard journalism to scrutinize the words and records of elected officials and candidates who hold positions of power and public trust,&#8221; Woodall said. &#8220;If you want to know more, keep reading The Baltimore Sun, a 200-year-old newspaper that has survived many governors.&#8221;

Wes Moore

Dem Presidential Hopeful Flails At Local Newspaper For Daring To Investigate His Record

Corruption

democratic party

Elections

wes moore

The CEO of The Washington Post has stepped down days after the media company cut roughly 30% of its staff.
The Post announced publisher Will Lewis’ departure on Saturday. Lewis also wrote a short note to staff in which he explained that he was leaving “to ensure” a “sustainable future” for the media outlet.
“After two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” Lewis wrote, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/07/media/washington-post-will-lewis-publisher-resigns">CNN</a>. “I want to thank Jeff Bezos for his support and leadership throughout my tenure as CEO and Publisher. The institution could not have a better owner.”
“During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day,” he concluded.
Lewis joined The Washington Post in 2024, brought on board by Bezos to help turn the outlet around after years of shrinking readership and financial losses. Jeff D’Onofrio, the Post’s chief financial officer, will succeed Lewis in the interim.
Post owner Jeff Bezos also wrote a note included in the release announcing the change. The Amazon founder said that The Washington Post has “an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/washington-post-owner-jeff-bezos-gives-first-statement-after-layoffs-2026-2">Business Insider</a>.
&#8220;Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus,” Bezos said.
The Post made major changes this week to reverse its trajectory, cutting roughly 300 jobs as it seeks to strip away parts of the company that it sees as financial liabilities and focus resources on profitable areas. Executives at the company said that the outlet has failed to adapt to a changing media landscape and must make tough decisions to stay relevant and competitive.
“If we are to thrive, not just endure, we must reinvent our journalism and our business model with renewed ambition,” executive editor Matt Murray wrote in a note to staff on Wednesday amid the layoffs.
The major cuts came to the newsroom’s international reporting and sports department, which no longer exists. Some of the sports writers were folded into the features section of the paper. The paper shrunk its international coverage, but will keep reporters on the ground in about a dozen countries.
The Post is also restructuring its metro section and shutting down its Post Reports podcast. The outlet will focus on national news, investigations, and health and wellness.
“Today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what has become a more crowded, competitive, and complicated media landscape,” Murray said during a call with staff on Wednesday. “For too long, we&#8217;ve operated with a structure that’s too rooted in the days when we were a quasi-monopoly local newspaper.”

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