Thanks to valiant efforts from on-air personalities Kasie Hunt and Kaitlan Collins, CNN managed to deliver two acts of actual journalism in the same 24-hour period — on two different topics.
The first came on Monday evening from Collins, who was discussing the political hot topics of the day with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) on &#8220;The Source&#8221; and took a moment to fact-check the Texas Democrat when she played fast and loose with the context of a statement made earlier in the day by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Jasmine Crockett immediately runs the debunked &#8220;Trump’s main priority is the ballroom” hoax on her CNN hit.
The lie is so egregious, she actually gets fact-checked by Kaitlan Collins. <a href="https://t.co/HRfeoTZ3ys">https://t.co/HRfeoTZ3ys</a> <a href="https://t.co/lvdp4gkuGu">pic.twitter.com/lvdp4gkuGu</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1982988988072722491?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When asked whether she thought the ongoing government shutdown was likely to end any time soon, Crockett attempted to make it look like President Donald Trump was going out of his way to prioritize other things.
&#8220;The president has time to do everything but what he needs to focus on. In fact, we heard the press secretary say his main priority is the ballroom — the ballroom that no one asked for. The ballroom that requires him to destroy historic pieces of the White House. And so it doesn’t seem like he’s interested [in the shutdown],&#8221; Crockett claimed.
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Collins pushed back immediately, noting that Leavitt had said the ballroom was the president&#8217;s top priority — but that she had been specifically referring to construction and renovation projects at the White House.
&#8220;Yeah, and that context of the comment from Karoline Leavitt, she was asked if the president was working on any other renovations when it came to the White House, and she was saying his focus was the ballroom,&#8221; Collins said.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Karoline Leavitt was asked if &#8220;the president is looking at any other renovations&#8221; at the White House?
Karoline answered: &#8220;At this moment in time of course, the ballroom is really the president&#8217;s main priority.&#8221;
This is how easily Democrats lie about stupid stuff. <a href="https://t.co/qGuZkvYYPV">https://t.co/qGuZkvYYPV</a> <a href="https://t.co/1fBzh8sdRN">pic.twitter.com/1fBzh8sdRN</a>
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/1981491616591597662?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Less than 24 hours later, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined host Kasie Hunt to discuss the ongoing shutdown — and she pressed him repeatedly on his party&#8217;s evolving position on keeping the government shuttered in order to leverage political gains.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Ruben Gallego just got wrecked on CNN for his hypocritical stance on shutdowns reverting to a &#8220;BUT TRUMP&#8221; response:
Host: &#8220;Why is it suddenly right to do it this way?&#8221;
Gallego: &#8220;It&#8217;s DONALD TRUMP &#8230; it&#8217;s all out the window Casey.&#8221;
There is nothing that Democrats have aside… <a href="https://t.co/sZKARGLRKA">pic.twitter.com/sZKARGLRKA</a>
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/1983278331157196951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;So I think my question is this, I mean, I take your point about these millions of people, the cost of living is incredibly high, but also Republicans control the White House, they control the Senate, they control the House, and in the past, Democrats, when Republicans have tried to do something like this, Democrats have argued that the norms of our government should be that you negotiate policy outside of a government shutdown,&#8221; Hunt confronted Gallego right from the start. &#8220;I mean, over many years covering Washington, people have said that over and over and over again.&#8221;
&#8220;Now I have neighbors in the D.C. area who are both employed by the federal government who are having to use food banks. We are heading into Thanksgiving. Why is it suddenly right to do it this way and to do it for this long when it didn’t used to be the right way in Democrats&#8217; view?&#8221; Hunt asked directly.
&#8220;Oh, that’s an easy answer. It’s Donald Trump,&#8221; Gallego replied, spinning quickly to change the topic. &#8220;You’re talking about norms in the time of Donald Trump? It’s also normal not for you to tear down the East Wing.&#8221;
Hunt did not budge: &#8220;Right, but Democrats have spent so much time arguing about how maintaining those norms is actually incredibly important in the face of Donald Trump.&#8221;
&#8220;It doesn’t. It’s all out the window. It is all out of the window, Kasie,&#8221; Gallego insisted, arguing that because he and Democrats did not like what Trump was doing, they were justified in breaking rules in order to level the playing field. &#8220;No. When you’re doing this time with Donald Trump, this is the man that is extorting people. He’s literally breaking every rule. We’re not going to go back and play by the norms when we know that&#8217;s what’s on the line. What’s on the line is 24 million people are going to have their insurance rates premiums doubled. That’s a new thing, by the way. And the fact is the president and everyone expects us to play by these old norms.&#8221;
&#8220;But didn’t Democrats kind of set that up in the bill that you passed, though, that these subsidies were going to expire?&#8221; Hunt was clearly not convinced.
Gallego admitted that Hunt was, in fact, correct — but once again attempted to spin, blaming Republicans for not wanting to pony up billions of taxpayer dollars to fund endless subsidies, all just to rescue the Affordable Care Act they hadn&#8217;t supported in the first place.
&#8220;When we passed the bills and back in the day, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, of course we were trying to maybe hope for the best that this country and our Republican colleagues would understand that raising insurance rates on people is a bad thing. I’m sorry they don’t see it that way, but it’s also not my job to make their job easier,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My job is to make sure that the premiums of 24 million Americans does not double overnight. And if it makes it harder on the Republicans that we’re putting them in a very difficult position, then they have to answer for that &#8230; But I’m not gonna abide by old norms, especially when you’re dealing with this presidency, this administration, and how the Republicans themselves have been acting.&#8221;

2024 Republican National Convention: Day 1

PLOT TWIST: CNN Commits Two Acts Of Journalism In The Same Day

CNN Commits Two Acts Of Journalism In The Same Day

Donald Trump

Journalism

Kaitlan Collins

Karoline Leavitt

Kasie Hunt

Legacy Media

Media

Politics

Some people are saying that President Trump’s magnificent handling of the Iranian-Hamas terror war against Israel has revealed him to be a political colossus whose opponents on both the left and right are nothing more than small, petty, fleshly instantiations of total irrelevance, with opinions that are meaningless and small and evanescent in their influence and small and also small. Other people are saying other things. Like, “What’s for dinner, Mommy?” or “Read me a story, Daddy,” or “I’m George Stephanopoulos and this is ABC News.”
But even as Trump celebrates getting terrorist hostages released and securing the American border and readjusting the international order so that China, Russia, and a seething hellpit of demonic Jew haters of all stripes don’t take over the world, those who oppose him are vowing to bring him down by unleashing the full force of the tremendous cultural power they used to have until we caught on to them.
So for instance, while Trump is being hailed by leaders around the globe as the Grand Marshal of the parade of history, powerful magazine editors from one end of Manhattan to the same end of Manhattan are vowing that his glamorous First Lady Melania will never, ever appear on the cover of one of their crappy, irrelevant magazines.
The editor of American Vogue magazine, Chloe Irrelevant, announced this shattering act of cultural vengeance in a barn-burning speech at the annual meeting of the Society of Crappy and Irrelevant Magazine Editors, saying, “Trump may have his moment, but as God is my witness, we will show our resistance to him by sinking to levels of pettiness and meanness that the world has not seen since our last issue.”
Miss Irrelevant’s speech seemed to be greeted by thunderous applause until she realized she had wandered into a ladies room, and the people she thought were her audience were just her own reflections in the mirrors over the sinks.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974735 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Likewise, in the smoking ruins of what would still be Los Angeles if they had taken Trump’s advice on water usage, both members of the Jimmy Kimmel fan club swore to ignore the Israeli peace deal and to pay tribute instead to Kimmel’s inspiring work of ensuring that every TV comedian has the exact same political opinions as every other TV comedian. To honor Kimmel’s protection of the corporate political conformity enshrined in our Bill of Rights, the Kimmel fans pledged they would actually watch Kimmel’s show one of these days if it didn’t interfere with their nightly gummy overdose.
At the New York Times, a former newspaper, Editor-in-Chief Blithering Prevarication the Third declared that he would not let Trump’s victory over terrorism stop the Times’s relentless juggernaut of misleading headlines, which was sure to bring the president down just as soon as Times subscribers stopped playing Wordle and momentarily glanced at the misleading headlines.
In a speech to the Association of Once-Important News Outlets, which had gathered in a ladies room to hear a speech from the editor of American Vogue, Mr. Third said, “Trump may be powerful now because he has all these accomplishments and what-not, but his authoritarian regime will never survive such fiery tirades as the article we headlined, Pete Buttigieg on Rebuilding America After Trump. This, at last, presents the revolutionary vision of the Transportation Secretary who made history by bringing gay people to the very pinnacle of complete incompetence.”
And so while Donald Trump may enjoy this flash-in-the-pan moment of nine or ten months of unprecedented political achievement, the powerful masters of what used to be our culture until the scales fell from our eyes have not given up their resistance. In the words of influential Harvard Professor Alan Flapdoodle, “We convicted Trump of non-existent felonies, we impeached him for non-existent offenses, we accused him of non-existent treasons, and I know in my heart that, if we can compare him to Hitler just a few more times, he will be brought down once and for all. Our voices are not irrelevant. Our lives are not meaningless. Our dreams will never die. Now if you’ll just put a dollar in my hat, I’ll be happy to play &#8220;Blowin’ in the Wind&#8221; on my harmonica. After all, a man’s gotta eat.”
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Cameron-Winter-Mysteries/dp/1613166869/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EGZUC370LG46&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Y_NI0mDOKeowShheDQTVx5NH-fAeimJoCD56_T0Acpl8C0mup7uJf-nGGSRLEItaaekoDnvS2vWLMa4Zd2UBXQ8Y-g-P502jOWz-Y8IX3ZQsdlO7WMLrg1xIhNoKmjCorSWUR4C2l_RbiZ7apJ1MfPzGOrrEf7AdAXX6xwnJRVP_XqUfWuMuVthTWscaU3P4vgmS86-96n-721enHfX12CFQWTajqFbVnrsDkexfUf4.6_gTH6h1Bb9Pn375QdF_VAVZSayDvjQBBKGXE-MTiFo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=klavan&amp;qid=1754049918&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">After That, The Dark,</a> is now available for PRE-ORDER. Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>
The views expressed in this satirical piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS

While Trump Celebrates World Peace, Democrats Deliver More Irrelevant Speeches

Andrew Klavan

Humor

Israeli hostages

Middle East

Satire

Trump peace plan

There&#8217;s a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146">story</a> from POLITICO making the rounds and creating an enormous amount of dyspepsia on the Right. The story is titled, “’I Love Hitler.’ Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat.”
It is questionable whether the actual line “I love Hitler” was said in jest or whether it was said authentically.
All those quotes from the chat have been released by POLITICO. They reported:
<blockquote>Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway. They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.
William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n&#8211;ga” and “n&#8211;guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”
Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old. “Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers,” he continued. Two members of the chat responded. </blockquote>
 A lot of this is edgelord-ism. It has existed on the Right, particularly among young right-wingers, for a very long time.
Back in 2015 or 2016, I was speaking at a college campus in California, and some kid came over and started using some Groyper memes in jest. I said to him, “Listen, I understand that you&#8217;re just being edgelord right now. If you actually, authentically think that stuff, you&#8217;re wrong. But second of all, if you put that stuff online, there are social consequences to saying and believing truly terrible things.”
I&#8217;m not talking here about whether we should ban people from Facebook. Obviously, the answer is no. Whether you ban people from YouTube or X, I&#8217;ve argued in favor of the restoration of people&#8217;s accounts on these platforms because they are platforms. They are not publications.
However, there are social consequences to people who say things that you believe are terrible. They don&#8217;t get to come over to dinner at your house. They don&#8217;t get to marry your kids. You don&#8217;t date them.
We all have social lines we draw all the time, and the question is where to draw those lines and how those lines ought to be drawn. There&#8217;s no question that the shutting tight of the Overton Window by the Left means that the explosion of the Overton Window in response has let in an enormous amount of garbage.
That is reality. This sort of language is routinely used now among a segment, not all, not even a majority, but among some fragmented segment of the right-wing ecosystem among young people.
So here is what I hope will represent an honest rubric for dealing with issues like this one.
<ol>
<li>Obviously, it is very cynical for POLITICO to target young GOP group chats while leaving left-wing chats untouched. I would promise you those same left-wing chats exist and are just as bad, if not worse. There are university chats among professors that are just as bad, if not worse.</li>
</ol>
All of that is true.
<ol start="2">
<li>The Right does not have an obligation to go totally insane over such chats. What the Left and the media love to do is to take stuff like this and say to every member of the Republican Party, “You must personally condemn all of this.” The answer should be, “I&#8217;m happy to condemn the crap in there, but why? Why am I responsible for it? I&#8217;m not responsible for that.” You claim that everyone on the Right is responsible for a group of young Republicans who say terrible things in private to one another, that what they did somehow implicates the entire Republican Party. Meanwhile, the attorney general candidate in Virginia publicly says horrible things and that doesn&#8217;t implicate the entire Democratic Party? Zohran Mamdani, who likely will be New York mayor, is openly pro-terrorism, and that doesn&#8217;t implicate the entire Democratic Party?</li>
</ol>
This POLITICO story, which is gaining all sorts of traction, is not comparable to actual people running for high office in Virginia or in New York City or the Democratic Party at high levels engaging with this sort of nonsense.
<ol start="3">
<li>When you&#8217;re asked about somebody saying a bad thing, whether you&#8217;re Right or Left, of course you ought to condemn the bad thing that is being said. I don&#8217;t even understand the logic of not doing that. Are you obligated to defend the bad thing being said, because the person who is questioning you is “on the other side?” Because that&#8217;s precisely how you get to a Left that defends Jay Jones. That&#8217;s how you get there. That&#8217;s how you get to a Left that openly defends Zohran Mamdani.</li>
</ol>
Forgiveness ought to be easily obtained, as I&#8217;ve said.
But — if you want forgiveness, you ought to ask for it. You ought to disassociate from the things that you say, and admit, “I was saying stuff that was dumb. I got caught up in the edgelord moment online.”
You only get out of jail free if you ask to do so. You don&#8217;t get it preemptively. If you say something terrible or you do something terrible and people preemptively forgive you, doesn’t that incentivize you to do more of that thing?
<ol start="4">
<li>Finally, it is not sufficient to publicly proclaim that you&#8217;re not going to condemn these people, say nothing about their comments, and instead just project to the other side. That’s because on a strategic level, this is how your party ends up being taken over by the ambulatory psychotics.</li>
</ol>
With the Left, that&#8217;s what happened. They decided they would not, under any circumstance, condemn their own ambulatory psychotics because those people were part of their coalition, and they couldn&#8217;t do it or they would lose.
You know what ended up happening? The alligator ate them first, not last. They ended up being taken over by the crazy wing. That’s because if you lose your systemic immunity, the crazy tends to be really, really, really infectious. 
 
There&#8217;s this weird idea on the Right that the Left wins because they&#8217;re totally unified and they completely side with one another.
But here’s the central point: The Left is not winning.
I think we on the Right have somehow become depressive, even possibly gotten addicted to the depressive. The Left is not winning.
Donald Trump has been president twice.
Republicans are in control of the Senate.
Republicans are in control of the House.
Republicans are in control of the majority of governors’ mansions.
Republicans are in control of a majority of state legislatures.
The Left is not winning because of their unity. They are being destroyed because they decided that the nutjobs and the radicals in their own party could not be condemned under any circumstances. They decided to feature Ilhan Omar on the cover of magazines and unite around the crazy college protesters, the BLM rioters, and the transgender radicals.
And guess what? They got their asses kicked because of it. Yes, they didn&#8217;t expel people from their party, but moderates walked away. The non-crazy walked away.
This is the dirty little secret of how Donald Trump won the election of 2024. He ran as a moderate. People were moderate and picked him above the unified Left that was siding with and defending and massaging all of the radicals.
This is a very big country with an awful lot of people, and the vast majority of them are not loon bags, and the vast majority of them don&#8217;t like the lunacy.
And we need to be real about the agenda of the people who are continuing to rely on the kindness of the “traditional Republicans” who “don&#8217;t want to attack.”

Unrecognizable young man using mobile phone device at home

POLITICO’s Story Reminds Us Who’s Really Losing It

Ben Shapiro

Conservatives

Democrats

Leftists

Liberals

Opinion

Politico

Republicans

U.S. Politics

NBC News cut 7% of its workforce ahead of the split that will separate NBC from sister network MSNBC, soon to be known only as &#8220;MSNOW.&#8221;
According to a <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/nbc-news-layoffs-number-versant-split/">report</a> from The Wrap, the terminations hit the dedicated teams &#8220;covering issues affecting black, Asian American, Latino and LGBTQ+ groups&#8221; hardest. Some 150 employees were reportedly laid off.
As The Wrap reported, the verticals that feature coverage about those issues (NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT) will still exist — and new stories will still be pursued and reported on — but the coverage will be spread out across the newsroom rather than provided by teams dedicated to those specific beats.
The cuts represent about 7% of the 2,000 staffers at the NBC News newsroom, and about 2% of the broader company that also includes several local stations owned by NBC outright in addition to Telemundo. A <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/nbc-news-layoffs-100-to-150-jobs-1236553614/">report</a> from Variety noted that the cuts could simply result in changing roles, as those who are being terminated will still have the option to apply for more than 100 different open positions across the news division.
The coming NBC split will also see its parent company, Comcast, spinning off other networks from the main news division — networks such as CNBC and USA Network will all fall under the same brand, Versant.
Other reports have also suggested that a similar fate — and a hefty round of layoffs — could be looming in the not-too-distant future for CBS News as well.
The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/the-scythe-draws-near-cnns-overpaid-talent-brace-for-deep-cuts-amid-corporate-shakeup/">noted</a> over the summer that whether or not CNN faces more layoffs in the near future, it&#8217;s likely that some of the highest-paid personalities on the network could face pay cuts in the future. Among those mentioned most frequently were Anderson Cooper ($18 million annually), Jake Tapper ($7.5 million annually), and several others. Gayle King, who earns $13-15 million annually at CBS, was also mentioned as one who could potentially see her pay reduced.

Vivendi Universal Entertainment Auction Drags On

DEI-Focused Teams Hit Hardest In Mass NBC News Layoffs

NBC Lays Off 7% Of Workforce Ahead Of MSNBC Split, DEI-Focused Teams Hardest Hit

MSNBC

NBC News

CBS News is reportedly set to name Bari Weiss as its inaugural editor-in-chief after Paramount inked a deal to buy Weiss’ outlet, The Free Press, for $150 million.
Weiss will report directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, circumventing both CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and CBS president George Cheeks, who typically oversees all CBS News executives, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/10/02/media/paramount-skydance-to-name-bari-weiss-editor-in-chief-of-cbs-news-sources/">New York Post</a>.
Weiss’ The Free Press will not be incorporated into CBS News, but will remain a standalone property under Paramount.
The $150 million buyout of The Free Press involves cash and stock options, according to the Post.
Weiss will move to helm the news division at CBS, vaulting her over reporters and anchors to have a significant hand in managing the editorial direction of the outlet, a remarkable comeback for a journalist who left The New York Times under controversial circumstances five years ago.
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Weiss has long been seen as an independent voice since her departure from the opinion page of The New York Times in 2020. In her resignation letter, Weiss <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/business/media/bari-weiss-resignation-new-york-times.html">cited</a> “bullying by colleagues” and an “illiberal environment” among her reasons for leaving the paper. With the deal with Paramount, Weiss has sprung into a highly influential position as media organizations grapple with the heavy progressive slant that the largest outfits have operated under for decades.
Paramount’s decision to move Weiss to the helm of CBS News reflects a new dynamic in corporate media to invite in voices that are more critical of the political Left wing of the country. Though Weiss is not a conservative, she is friendly with many on the Right, often inviting them to come on her podcast “Honestly,” and her ascension should be seen as a positive development for conservatives who want to see a more balanced approach to politics in corporate media.

Bari Weiss

Bari Weiss To Direct CBS News As Editor-In-Chief As Part Of Free Press Deal: Report

CBS News

In the wake of the horrific and historic assassination of the brilliant young conservative Charlie Kirk, there has understandably been increased focus on the rhetoric that preceded and followed the event. The overwhelming majority of Americans <a href="https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/media.deseret.com/media/misc/pdf/kirk-sky-national.pdf">(86%)</a> express concern over political violence, with <a href="https://statesunited.org/resources/political-violence-survey/">78%</a> believing it has escalated in recent years, and 57% saying it is a major problem — the highest response to that question in the last two years. 
When it comes to assessing blame, Americans are unsurprisingly <a href="https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2025/09/15/political-violence-america-charlie-kirk-shooting-morning-consult-poll/">split along partisan lines</a> on culpability, with the plurality of respondents believing the Left and Right bear equal responsibility. However, they find agreement in blaming politicians on both sides as being the key instigators.
Republicans point to examples of Hillary Clinton calling Trump supporters “deplorables;” Biden telling us that it’s time to “put a bulls-eye on Trump;” Maxine Waters telling supporters to “create a crowd and … push back” and during the 2021 unrest in Minneapolis “to get more confrontational;” Schumer telling Supreme Court Justices “… you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you;” Dan Goldman telling an MSNBC interviewer that Trump “has to be eliminated;” Vice President Harris telling everyone that Trump and MAGA supporters were “a threat to democracy;” and of course, the countless references to Trump and MAGA supporters being Hitler, Nazis, fascists, and Gestapo.
Democrats counter with references to Steve Bannon referring to the political opposition as “criminals, vermin,” and “enemies of the republic;” Trump telling supporters to “fight like hell” and claiming he called white supremacists “very fine people;” Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting a “peaceful national divorce” between red and blue states; Trump calling Democrats “scum, garbage” and “enemies of the people;” and Musk posting that “The Left is the party of murder.”
It is much more emotionally engaging to discuss the implications and injustices of rhetorical content, but regardless of which side has been more vitriolic, there is a far larger, more influential factor that supersedes all of it: Who controls the dominant media platforms — and specifically, the digital platforms. And that dominance overwhelmingly belongs to the Left. The result is that the Left’s messages and hyperbole are broadcast to dramatically more people, dramatically more frequently, and on dramatically more channels. Further, competing or contradictory messaging is far more likely to be absent or censored on the Left’s channels, so their audience is fed a much more homogenous diet of narratives.
Consider three important media domains: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Legacy Media, with centralized and professionally produced content, including television, radio, and newspapers (CNN, Reuters, Fox News, The New York Times, NPR, BBC, etc.)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Social media — with user-generated content, no editorial oversight, and algorithm-generated visibility (Facebook, X—formerly Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, etc.)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Search (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.)</li>
</ul>
The waning, but still significant, mainstream media are <a href="https://www.mrc.org/liberal-mediaevery-poll-shows-journalists-are-more-liberal-american-public-and-public-knows-it">dominantly Left-leaning and becoming more so</a>. Research has shown that members of the media are <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Fact_check/Do_97_percent_of_journalist_donations_go_to_Democrats">overwhelmingly liberal</a>, with the vast majority of them supporting Democratic candidates. In 2016, 96% of journalists’ donations went to the Hillary Clinton campaign. <a href="https://www.mrc.org/node/90399">Media Research Center found</a> that 92% of Trump coverage during the 2020 presidential campaign was negative – even more so than the relentless, hostile coverage he received in 2017. When examining bias in mainstream/traditional media, <a href="https://www.biasly.com/media-bias-chart/us-main/?">studies</a> have concluded that upwards of 60% of these outlets are left-leaning. But that doesn’t tell the whole story because that percentage is based on the number of outlets, regardless of the audience size for that outlet. When considering the total audience size and the percentage of it that receives information with a left-leaning bias, the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/pj_2025-06-10_news-media-sources_report.pdf">bias number climbs closer to 75%</a>. The percentage of Americans viewing a liberal bias in the mainstream media has doubled since 1985.
However, traditional media are quickly being pushed aside by social media, where the leftist bias is even more pronounced. The top social media companies are all Left-leaning (See <a href="https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-did-ai-get-so-biased-favor-left">here</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rigged-Media-Democrats-Seized-Elections/dp/168451259X/">here</a>, <a href="https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/social-media-trump-conservative-bias/">here</a>, and <a href="https://twitterfiles.substack.com/p/the-censorship-industrial-complex">here</a>). Meta, the undisputed king of social media, owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, reaching approximately <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/">4 billion users</a> and controlling 75-80% of the social media market worldwide. Alphabet Inc., a smaller behemoth that owns Google and YouTube, has just surpassed $3 trillion in market cap and reaches some <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-top-social-platforms?">2.2 billion users</a>. A collection of companies, including those owning TikTok, Douyin, WeChat, QQ, and Snapchat, reaches an additional <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/?">3.5 billion users</a> combined. Musk’s little X is much further down the list with a mere 500 million users.
I previously described social media as the <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/08/the_federal_government_colluded_with_social_media_to_control_content_so_what.html">800-pound gorilla in a rapidly shrinking cage</a>, noting that usage has skyrocketed from 5% in 2005 to over 70% today. Some estimates indicate that as much as 38% of all internet time today is spent on social media. Considering Facebook alone, the vast majority (nearly 70%) of <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/facebook-statistics/?">Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users</a> visit the site daily, and more than half of them visit it several times per day. 
The younger generations are particularly fond of social media, with a strong plurality — some <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/07/news-consumption-social-video/?">44% of Americans aged 18 to 24 and 34% of those aged 25 to 34 </a>— reporting that they now obtain their news and information from social media and video formats, rather than traditional media. This trend is accelerating worldwide, raising concerns about misinformation, algorithmic bias, and the blurring of entertainment and news.
What about when audiences go searching for information on their own? Most commonly today, this means using a computer, and in this world, Google controls a whopping <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share?">90% of the search market</a>, processing some <a href="https://sqmagazine.co.uk/google-search-statistics/?">8.9 billion search requests</a> per day, amounting to over 5 trillion annually. Over 70% of all clicks go to the top 5 search results (hence the industry joke that the best place to bury a dead body is on the second page of results for a Google search — because nobody ever looks there). They control a significantly larger share (<a href="https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/google-statistics/?">95%</a>) of the global mobile search market.
Just prior to the 2022 midterm elections, <a href="https://www.allsides.com/blog/google-news-shows-strong-political-bias-allsides-analysis">researchers found that the plurality of articles returned</a> for a Google search under the term “election” were from the New York Times and CNN (44%), with 0% from center or Right-leaning outlets. In 2023, <a href="https://www.allsides.com/blog/google-news-shows-strong-political-bias-allsides-analysis?copilot_analytics_metadata=eyJldmVudEluZm9fbWVzc2FnZUlkIjoiMXB5eDR2NGs1WnJkVDYxR3RWcXA4IiwiZXZlbnRJbmZvX2NvbnZlcnNhdGlvbklkIjoiOURMZ3dnaG5tdFlhWHpzc0xiZGVzIiwiZXZlbnRJbmZvX2NsaWNrU291cmNlIjoiY2l0YXRpb25MaW5rIiwiZXZlbnRJbmZvX2NsaWNrRGVzdGluYXRpb24iOiJodHRwczpcL1wvd3d3LmFsbHNpZGVzLmNvbVwvYmxvZ1wvZ29vZ2xlLW5ld3Mtc2hvd3Mtc3Ryb25nLXBvbGl0aWNhbC1iaWFzLWFsbHNpZGVzLWFuYWx5c2lzIn0=">the same research firm found</a> that 61% of the articles posted on the Google News homepage came from Left-rated sources, with only 3% coming from Right-rated sources. Repeated samplings produced very similar results.
<a href="https://www.gotchseo.com/google-biased/?">Another research firm</a> used 50 politically charged search terms with Google and found that the results were demonstrably left-leaning. Consider their results for the following:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Black Lives Matter” — 9 out of 10 results from Left-leaning outlets.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Border wall” – 7 of 10 results Left-leaning.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Dreamers” – 6 of 10 results Left-leaning.</li>
</ul>
Conversely, searches for “immigration policy” or “gun control facts” would surface snippets from CNN, NYT, or Vox, while conservative sources were buried or absent. Notably, the researchers attribute some of the results to the dominance of left-leaning outlets in Search Engine Optimization, rather than to algorithmic intent. Regardless, the result in the output is the same.
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In his 2019 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, Dr. Robert Epstein, a self-proclaimed lifelong Democrat, argued that Google posed a threat not only to democracy but also to human autonomy. He has focused particularly on ephemeral search results — the auto-complete function that Google and others provide, which offers suggestions for alternative or additional phrasing. As but one example, he found that typing “Hillary Clinton is…” yielded suggestions like “winning,” “awesome,” and “qualified,” while “Donald Trump is…” produced “dangerous,” “racist,” and “a liar.” He <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%2520Testimony.pdf">concludes</a>: 
<blockquote>We are all aware that Google deletes or blocks access to videos on YouTube, which it owns, but few people are aware that Google blocks access to millions of websites. By the way, it is not just conservative content that gets censored . . . The problem with Google is not that it censors conservatives; the problem is that it has the power to determine what content billions of people worldwide will or will not see. No single entity – especially a private company that is not accountable to the public – should have such power.</blockquote>
It is clear that all three domains — the legacy media, social media, and search — are all heavily Left-leaning. Consider what this dominance means for the sheer volume of leftist information and rhetoric being broadcast and received. Put aside for the moment the questions of whether Democrats are using more pernicious or violent language than republicans. That issue pales in comparison to the question of how frequently their message is being broadcast — how many videos, shorts, stories, op-eds, posts — the sheer volume of minutes that will be devoted to the Left&#8217;s position versus the Right&#8217;s and whether any counter to it will be available.
The Left has a massive, pervasive, powerful, and sophisticated digital network, which I previously analogized to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-democrat-warplane-takes-flak-audacity-remains-intact?author=Greg+Salsbury&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=As+Democrat+Warplane+Takes+Flak,+Audacity+Remains+Intact">stealth fighter</a>. Comparatively, conservatives have a Sopwith Camel. It is why on any number of issues, from Russiagate to Charlottesville misquotes, to Trump’s comments about COVID and bleach, to Charlie Kirk’s killer being right-wing, a shockingly high percentage of Americans still believe the lies that were broadcast ad nauseam despite their thorough debunking. Until conservatives can deal with the massive differential in scale, reach, and volume, “turning down the rhetoric” will remain a far lower priority issue.
* * *
Greg Salsbury, Ph.D. is former president of Western Colorado University and Board of Advisors member for <a href="https://starrs.us">STARRS.US</a>. He earned his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California and an M.A. from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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It’s Not Just The Rhetoric, It’s Who Controls The Mic

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On Friday’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher slammed the media for their constant criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza while ignoring the horrific and systematic slaughter of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria.
In his back-and-forth with guest Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Maher bitterly denounced not only the media for ignoring the crisis in Nigeria, but American youths who routinely slam Israel, but never mention the obvious genocidal effort by Boko Haram and other Muslim groups to eliminate Nigerian Christians.
Open Doors, a Christian charity that reports on persecution of Christians around the world, told Fox News Digital, “The crisis facing large areas of sub-Saharan Africa is hard to overstate. It is potentially existential for the future peace and stability of several nations in the region, not least Nigeria. Around 150,000 people have been killed in Jihadist violence over the last 10 years. Over 16 million Christians have been driven from their homes and their land across the region.”
“Recent Open Doors research shows that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined,” Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-maher-claims-slaughter-christians-nigeria-being-ignored-because-jews-arent-involved">added</a>.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Maher began. “If you don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble. And again, I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They&#8217;ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They&#8217;ve burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?”
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“No one will talk about it, so thank you,” Mace responded. “It’s Africa, so no one’s talking about it, and they should be. You can’t read about it on mainstream media. It’s sad, so thank you for bringing it up.&#8221;
“Well, because the Jews aren’t involved. That’s why,&#8221; Maher responded. “It’s the Christians and the Muslims — who cares?”
As far back as April 2021, Maher <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bill-maher-israel-gaza-bella-hadid?utm_source=chatgpt.com">took aim</a> at the legacy media’s coverage of Israel, saying after coming back from a bout with COVID, “One of the frustrations I had while I was off is that I was watching this war go on in Israel … and it was frustrating to me because there was no one on liberal media to defend Israel, really. &#8230; We&#8217;ve become this country now that we&#8217;re kind of one-sided on this issue. And I&#8217;d also like to say off the bat I don&#8217;t think kids understand &#8212; and when I say kids, I mean the younger generations &#8212; you can&#8217;t learn history from Instagram. There&#8217;s just not enough space.”
“Hamas&#8217; charter says they just want to wipe out Israel,” he said bluntly. “Their negotiation position is, ‘You all die.’”

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US-POLITICS-TRUMP-KIRK-SHOOTING

Christian Faith Was On Full Display At Charlie Kirk’s Memorial And Leftists Are Confused

Bible

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Turning Point USA

Commentators at CNN and MSNBC — both left-leaning networks — appeared to break form for just a few seconds in praising the new CEO of Turning Point USA, Erika Kirk, as she eulogized her late husband Charlie Kirk.
For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
The life of Charlie Kirk, conservative commentator and TPUSA founder, was celebrated on Sunday just 11 days after his public assassination at a Utah Valley University campus event, and his newly-widowed wife <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/erika-kirk-forgives-her-husbands-suspected-assassin-says-charlie-would-have-done-so-too">Erika</a> gave a eulogy that brought much of America to tears, offering forgiveness to the suspected assassin who&#8217;d robbed her of a husband and her two young children of their father.
After noting that Charlie&#8217;s heart was truly in the fight to &#8220;save young men just like the one who took his life,&#8221; she added, &#8220;“That young man, that young man. On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know, from the Gospel, is love and always love.”
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Erika Kirk forgives the man who murdered her husband:
&#8220;My husband Charlie&#8230;he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life&#8230;that young man&#8230;
I forgive him.
I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Pd1yGRMRVw">pic.twitter.com/Pd1yGRMRVw</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1969893178393206823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The response to Ms. Kirk&#8217;s speech was overwhelming, crossing party lines and blowing away liberal and progressive commentators even on networks like CNN and MSNBC.
NBC White House correspondent Vaughn Hillyard responded to the speech on MSNBC, saying, &#8220;I think what honestly I’ll take away from tonight is watching the weight of a woman, a mother, lose her husband. Most people cannot say they’ve experienced losing a spouse at this young of an age, and I don’t know who we are to suggest how somebody should respond in real time. One week after her husband’s passing, she went in front of a crowd of 40 to 50,000 people, people watching all over the world. And she delivered remarks in which she forgave the assassin that shot her husband and killed him.&#8221;
&#8220;A remarkable moment because in so many ways, where America stands in 2025 is, how do we respond going forward? And the woman that just lost her husband stood there in front of the world and said, ‘I forgive,'&#8221; Hillyard added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
TFW you&#8217;re blown away by Erika Kirk&#8217;s remarks but HAVE to feed TDS brainworms to your MSNBC audience <a href="https://t.co/GxytM7hOzh">pic.twitter.com/GxytM7hOzh</a>
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BonillaJL/status/1969907932738339150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But the conversation did not stop there, as Ayman Mohideen jumped in to also praise Ms. Kirk — but he used her speech to attack President Trump for taking a different route.
&#8220;So, when you weave all of that into a eulogy and in a moment where the country is in sorrow and in pain because of what just happened, there is that split screen. There is that disconnect between the grief that a mother who is just going to bury her husband, the father of her children, and a president who’s talking about the the politics of this moment,&#8221; Mohideen said.
“And I think that’s what my takeaway was from that speech, you know, the opportunity for the president to try to heal and bring the country, as many had hoped he would, and not doing it in the way that many people would expect a president to do,&#8221; he complained.
On CNN, Xochitl Hinojosa — who served as communications director for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) — said that Erika Kirk&#8217;s words could unite Americans across party lines. But she had to preface that assessment with a comparison to Trump, who she argued had not done that.
&#8220;I think in times like this, especially when there is political violence, you need the president, regardless of who it is, to bring the country together. And that has not happened,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;This was an opportunity for Trump to do that. He did not take that opportunity. The person who really did that was Erika Kirk. She came to the moment — she understood that people need to be brought together. She’s probably one of the only people besides Donald Trump who could do that. So much that she says … that she forgave the shooter. She also said, &#8216;The answer to hate is not hate,'&#8221; Hinojosa said.
&#8220;She talked about love for our enemies. She talked about the First Amendment and the importance of the First Amendment. These are all things that should have come, you know, largely about bringing our country together, from our president,&#8221; she said again. &#8220;But instead it came from the widow of Charlie Kirk, which I think is, I mean, I don’t know how she did it. First of all, giving that speech, but also rising to the moment when our country needs leadership, when our country needs to hear those messages of coming together. It was the widow who did it.&#8221;

Memorial Service Held For Slain Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk At State Farm Stadium

Spin Cycle: They Really Can’t Help It, Can They? CNN, MSNBC Praise Erika Kirk Eulogy To Attack Trump

Spin Cycle: They Really Can't Help It, Can They?

assassination

The entire media and the Left are filled with rage and anguish today — but not over Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Over Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
The outpouring of support for Jimmy Kimmel in the media is overwhelming.
Let&#8217;s start with the things we know about Jimmy Kimmel going off the air. Number one, Jimmy Kimmel&#8217;s ratings were horrifyingly low. Remember, he was a network television late-night host. And in 2025, only 1.6 million people were viewing his show, being broadcast for free on network TV across the country.
In the advertiser-coveted demographic model, ages 25 to 54, the decline was even more significant. Are you ready for this? In 2015, he had a million viewers in that age range. By 2025, he had, I kid you not, 261,000 people in that age range watching his show.
My <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show">show</a> is multiple times larger than Jimmy Kimmel&#8217;s show. Over on Fox in 2025, Greg Gutfeld averaged 3.2 million total viewers, even though it&#8217;s on a cable channel. It’s not even network TV. When it comes to that 25-to-54 demographic, Gutfeld was averaging 381,000 people compared to 261,000 for Kimmel, meaning that Gutfeld was ahead of him by 46%.
So it’s quite possible that a bunch of local affiliates were simply done with Jimmy Kimmel. And when Kimmel decided that he was going to go on air and suggest that the shooter of Charlie Kirk was a MAGA conservative, they&#8217;d had it. Many of these station owners, these local stations, are not owned directly by ABC. They&#8217;re owned by local television networks or by a consortium like Sinclair.
Sinclair Broadcasting happens to be politically conservative in its orientation. There have been longtime rumors of Sinclair trying to launch its own form of Fox News, essentially with its own lineup. So it is perfectly plausible that Sinclair looked at what Jimmy Kimmel said and felt, “You know what? We&#8217;re done. We&#8217;re not interested anymore.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2284-bss-member-exclusive"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a> 
What also happened is that the local affiliates went to ABC. They said, “We don&#8217;t want him on the air.” And ABC responded by basically saying, “If half of our affiliates don&#8217;t want you on the air, we&#8217;re just going to suspend your show because what else are we going to do? You have to provide them with some programming.” 
Sinclair announced it would yank “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its stations until the host apologized directly to Charlie Kirk&#8217;s family and also donated to TPUSA, which, of course, was never going to happen. The company vowed not to return Kimmel&#8217;s show “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network&#8217;s commitment to professionalism and accountability.” 
Apparently, Jimmy Kimmel had been planning to double down on his remarks.The reason he was abruptly pulled is because he was planning on doing another monologue the next night where he ripped into MAGA. 
According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/09/18/media/ujimmy-kimmel-refused-to-apologize-after-charlie-kirk-outrage/">New York Post</a>:
<blockquote>Late night host Jimmy Kimmel said he was unwilling to apologize for his remarks that blamed MAGA supporters for killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk — and said he was going to double down on attacking President Trump’s backers before he was yanked from the air, according to new reports. Kimmel learned in a phone call from top Disney exec Dana Walden on Wednesday afternoon that his show was being removed indefinitely, Deadline reported, citing sources. During the call, Kimmel reportedly refused to comply with calls from critics and the owners of dozens of ABC affiliate stations for him to apologize. 
Kimmel felt his remarks required no apologies, another source told The Hollywood Reporter. The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host also claimed that he was planning to call out his critics for the latest attack on him, all while trying to clarify his comments about Kirk’s death. &#8230; Disney, however, felt that if Kimmel had doubled down on his MAGA comments, the company would have been forced to make a more drastic decision than simply suspending the show, sources told Deadline. </blockquote>
From that fact pattern, it appears that the reason Kimmel was taken off the air is because of organic outrage by viewers, which filtered up to affiliates, and those affiliates went to Disney and ABC. And they said, “We are not interested in having Jimmy Kimmel on.” And Kimmel responded by saying, “I&#8217;m going to double down and attack your viewers.”
No tears for Jimmy Kimmel. 
But the Left has decided that this is the greatest assault on free speech in American history, which is totally crazy considering a man was shot to death for doing free speech one week ago, and they seem to care much more about Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air than Charlie Kirk being murdered live on TV. 
Jon Stewart did a special <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/arts/television/late-night-jimmy-kimmel-suspension.html">weekday break-in</a> on The Daily Show. Of course, he did no such thing last week after Charlie was killed. No special episode about the importance of free speech after a person he disagreed with was shot to death in front of 3,000 people and countless others on the internet. No break-in for that.
But when his friend Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended from the airwaves, he does a break-in. He did a 23-minute monologue suggesting that the State was going to come after everybody on the Left.
Now, one thing I noticed about Jon Stewart is that he is not under that threat. If he thought he was actually under that threat, he wouldn&#8217;t have done this particular lecture.
So he showed up, and his shtick was that the background had been made up to look like a sort of Trumpian Mar-a-Lago. He was wearing a jacket and a red tie to mimic Trump, and a flag pin, so he could claim that he was operating under fear.
Jon Stewart is not operating under fear. Let&#8217;s be real. These were crocodile tears. He was not operating under the assumption that his free speech life is over in the United States. 
Stephen Colbert then <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/arts/television/jimmy-kimmel-david-letterman-stephen-colbert.html">came out and said</a>, “We are all Jimmy Kimmel.” What he really meant was, “I am Jimmy Kimmel.” Even if it turns out Kimmel was taken off the air because of FCC pressure — which I think is very, very doubtful — Stephen Colbert was not taken off the air because of Trump administration pressure. Paramount chief Shari Redstone pointed out that Stephen Colbert&#8217;s cancellation had literally nothing to do with anything government-related. He was taken off because he sucked at his job and cost too much money. 
Comedian Marc Maron <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/marc-maron-patton-oswalt-jimmy-kimmel/">hyperventilated</a>, “This is government censorship. This is the Trump administration coming after people who speak out against him. This is the end of it. If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution and free speech, this is it. This is the deciding moment. This is what authoritarianism looks like right now in this country. It’s happening.” 
Oh my God, you can hear the jackboots at the door. 
David Letterman <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/david-letterman-laces-into-trump-white-house-over-to-kimmel-suspension-an-authoritarian-criminal-administration/">emerged</a> from his house in the woods — where I assume he&#8217;s writing Unabomber journals — to go to the vaunted Atlantic Festival to talk about how this is a criminal and authoritarian administration. 
Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, who for some weird reason believes that he is going to run for president, said <a href="https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1969024042926547421">Kimmel’s suspension</a> was about Trump silencing his political opponents. He actually said the people should take to the streets, that there should basically be giant protests in favor of Jimmy Kimmel. 
After spending 60 years using the FCC to crack down on its own political opposition, it is hilarious to see the Left protesting about Kimmel’s suspension. 
For a solid couple of decades, Democrats were quite authoritarian in their approach to free speech. We all remember the Woke revolutions, where if you didn&#8217;t post a black square, you were in danger of losing your job. We all remember Barack Obama using the law to spy on James Rosen, the Associated Press journalist. We remember Joe Biden using the power of the government to crack down on major social media companies in order to get them to mirror his political priorities. We all remember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for more censorship. 
The Left is crying about Kimmel and free speech. 
It’s been hardly more than a week since America lost Charlie.

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel From Late Show After Comments About Charlie Kirk Shooting

Kimmel Suspended, Democrats Livid 

Jimmy Kimmel

Jon Stewart

Stephen Colbert

The tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk has further exposed media bias, with outlets like MSNBC, CNN, and ABC labeling him “divisive” or “controversial” while downplaying leftist rhetoric that may have fueled violence. <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2025/09/12/charlie-kirks-murder-cheered-online-liberal-teachers">Posts by liberal school teachers cheering</a> Kirk’s death and comments from Democrat politicians like Jasmine Crockett and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker inciting unrest reveal a double standard. This tragedy may finally force the elite legacy media to confront the effect their far-left bias has had on America. Even before Kirk’s assassination, President Trump was pushing broadcasters to restore balance to heal the political divide, improve network viewership, and ensure the airwaves serve all Americans, aligning with the law and fostering fair discourse.
When Donald Trump descended the escalator in the summer of 2015, he put on center stage the fight that the Media Research Center (MRC) has been engaged in for nearly 40 years. While MRC may be the incumbent in this battle against media bias, the president deserves enormous credit for helping to identify and root out media malfeasance.
President Trump and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr are addressing the longstanding issue of media bias by enforcing the legal obligations of broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC, which use public airwaves rent-free. These networks must meet a “public interest test” to serve all Americans, not just select political groups. Recent actions, including Trump’s lawsuits against CBS and ABC for deceptive editing and defamation, highlight a commitment to rooting out bias.
Legacy media are undoubtedly biased and purpose-driven. Take ABC’s David Muir, who was still allowed to host a presidential debate after MRC research found his nightly newscast had <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2024/09/09/100-abc-debate-moderator-david-muir-hosts-most-pro-harris-left-wing">100% positive coverage of Kamala Harris</a> and <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2025/04/28/tv-news-assaults-2nd-trump-admin-92-negative-coverage">92% negative coverage of Donald Trump</a>. From routine <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2025/09/02/why-cant-cbs-stop-deceptively-editing-interviews-politicians">deceptive</a> editing in their interviews with Trump – and his cabinet officials – to initially refusing to mention the brutal Charlotte stabbing, only to eventually <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2025/09/08/nbc-trumpwashes-their-coverage-brutal-charlotte-stabbing">report</a> the tragedy through the lens of it being right-wing hysteria and fuel for Trump’s tough-on-crime approach. The media have earned the colossal decline of their collective reputation.
The public is now keenly aware of the media’s deficiencies, with <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/657239/five-key-insights-americans-views-news-media.aspx">69% </a>of people saying they have very little to no trust in the media, the worst result for the media since Gallup started assessing public confidence in it.
Some would argue, and most conservatives would agree, that these broadcasters and their cable news counterparts have a right to anchor themselves in whatever political persuasion favors their interests, so long as they are honest with their audience. While it would, at best, lack journalistic integrity for a major cable network like MSNow (formerly MSNBC) or CNN to show blatant favoritism in how they interview a Supreme Court justice, it would still easily pass legal muster. However, when traditional network broadcasters like CBS engage in <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2025/09/07/tale-two-interviews-cbss-norah-odonnell-fawned-over-justice#">the same behavior</a>, it’s a completely different story.
That is because the airwaves used by ABC, CBS, and NBC are owned by the American public. It will surprise many to learn that these broadcasters use our airwaves rent-free. This might sound like a terrible deal for taxpayers, but that is why broadcasters are required to meet a “public interest test,” ensuring that the whole public is served. Not just Democrats. Not just liberals. Not just left-wing agitators.
Carr is taking action to hold broadcasters accountable to the law which requires them to act in the interest of all Americans. Perhaps ironically, by requiring broadcasters to serve a much larger audience, Carr is probably saving these networks from their plummeting ratings and their declining revenues. Moreover, by reducing other regulatory burdens placed on them by the Biden administration, like the onerous DEI and ESG requirements, Carr is helping their bottom lines in more ways than one.
It’s no secret that traditional <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-05-11/network-evening-newscasts-still-matter-but-face-stiff-winds-of-change#:~:text=View%20All-,The%20network%20evening%20news%20is%20in%20flux:%20Why%20an%20American,With%20David%20Muir%E2%80%9D%20on%20ABC.&amp;text=Network%20evening%20newscasts%20are%20down,younger%2C%20digital%2Dsavvy%20viewers.">broadcast media is</a> in financial trouble. Without question, this is due to the fact that their current business model focuses on the fastest shrinking segment of America: liberals.
That might or might not work for a niche channel, like MSNow, but it is a guaranteed losing proposition for broadcast news.
By getting these networks to live up to their legal obligations, President Trump and Chairman Carr are helping all Americans become better informed while simultaneously helping the networks increase their <a href="https://allaboutcookies.org/cord-cutters-streaming-survey#:~:text=Rising%20cable%20costs%20and%20the,to%20move%20away%20from%20cable." target="_blank" rel="noopener">sagging viewership and revenue.</a> 
Their recent actions represent the first serious attempt in modern history to restore lawfulness, fairness, and order to the political discourse in America’s media. It is something we need more of.
* * *
Dan Schneider is the Vice President of the Media Research Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Left-Wing Media Bias Under Scrutiny Following Coverage Of Kirk Assassination

ABC News

Federal Trade Commission

Media Research Center

The manhunt for Charlie Kirk&#8217;s assassin continues, as reports indicate the ammunition used was etched with pro-transgender and anti-fascist phrases. The legacy media faces intense backlash for its response to Charlie Kirk&#8217;s murder, with some commentators blaming the victim for his own assassination. On the 24th anniversary of 9/11, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth lays out a new, hard-hitting vision for the U.S. Military.
It’s Friday, September 12, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2>Manhunt Continues for Charlie Kirk’s Killer</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-971571" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH1-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH1.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The nationwide manhunt continues for the assassin who fatally shot Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, as new reports indicate the ammunition used in the attack was etched with pro-transgender and anti-fascist slogans.
Authorities have recovered the high-powered, bolt-action rifle allegedly used in the attack from a wooded area near the Utah Valley University campus. A law enforcement bulletin cited by The Wall Street Journal said the ammunition found with the rifle was etched with a number of pro-transgender and anti-fascist phrases. Kirk was an outspoken critic of transgender ideology and was discussing the topic at the moment he was shot.
The FBI has identified a new person of interest &#8212; a slender male in his 20s &#8212; and released two images to the public, offering a $100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts. As the killer remains at large, lawmakers across the country have canceled scheduled events over security fears. Later on Thursday, authorities released video showing the suspected assassin flee the scene, jumping off the building where he&#8217;s believed to have shot Kirk from with a hunting rifle.
<div id="attachment_971557" style="width: 307px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-971557" class="size-large wp-image-971557" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-297x576.jpg" alt="" width="297" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-297x576.jpg 297w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-155x300.jpg 155w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-768x1490.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-792x1536.jpg 792w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-1055x2048.jpg 1055w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234187310-scaled.jpg 1319w" sizes=" (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px" />(Photo by FBI Salt Lake City via Getty Images)</div>
President Trump announced that Kirk would be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling him a &#8220;giant of his generation.&#8221; On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, accompanied the Kirk family as Charlie’s casket was flown back to his home in Phoenix, Arizona, on Air Force 2.
<h2>Legacy Media Faces Backlash for Response to Kirk’s Murder</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-971573" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH2-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH2.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The legacy media is facing widespread and intense criticism for its coverage of Charlie Kirk&#8217;s assassination, with some commentators implying the conservative activist was to blame for his own death.
Immediately after the fatal shooting, MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd suggested on-air that Kirk&#8217;s &#8220;hate speech&#8221; often leads to &#8220;hateful actions,&#8221; and even speculated that the shot could have come from &#8220;a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.&#8221; Following intense backlash, MSNBC issued an apology and fired Dowd. On CBS, host Nate Burleson suggested the assassination was a moment for the Republican Party to reflect on political violence. The New York Times initially smeared Kirk as a &#8220;provocateur&#8221; in its report on his assassination.
Critics are pointing to a long pattern of hostile and false coverage of Kirk by legacy media outlets and activist groups. The far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center recently added Kirk&#8217;s organization, Turning Point USA, to its &#8220;Hate Map&#8221; alongside KKK chapters. On the floor of the U.S. House, about a dozen Democrats erupted in protest when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) requested a prayer for Kirk after a moment of silence, with one shouting, &#8220;Pass some gun laws!&#8221;
<h2>Hegseth Issues 9/11 Call to Action for U.S. Military</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-971569" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH3-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.12.25-SH3.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: On the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a powerful address laying out the Trump administration&#8217;s hard-hitting vision for the U.S. Military.
&#8220;War is an enduring aspect of the human condition,&#8221; Hegseth said Thursday. &#8220;War must not become a mere tool for global social work, eager to risk American blood and treasure for utopian fever dreams. We should hit hard, wreak vengeance, and return home.”
Retired Marine Corps Major Chris Lovell told Morning Wire that the new mission clarity is having a positive effect on the armed forces. &#8220;We are in such a good place with the military,&#8221; Lovell said, crediting the administration with &#8220;getting rid of the DEI distractions, the woke distractions.&#8221; He said recruitment is now &#8220;fuller than ever&#8221; because the mission is clear.
Lovell reflected on the surge of patriotism following the 9/11 attacks, when nearly 200,000 young Americans enlisted. He said the military&#8217;s new mission under Trump and Hegseth is inspiring a similar sense of purpose. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to be lethal,&#8221; Lovell said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to defend the interests of the United States of America. And we&#8217;re going to have leaders that support us and have our backs.&#8221;

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Morning Brief: Manhunt For Charlie Kirk’s Killer, Backlash To Media Coverage, 9/11 ‘Call To Action’

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