We Must Never Forget How Horrible the Press Coverage Was in 2024
A full digest of our Corporate Media Fails 13-part series
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In 2024, corporate media failed all of us at a level that should be considered malpractice.
I knew it wasn’t enough to just get mad at the Press. So we decided to launch a massive pressure campaign—to hold them accountable, and call out their lies as loudly as possible.
And each Sunday, right here on Substack, we published a list of the top 5 corporate media fails from the week.
In all, we released 13 parts of the series, providing our readers with 65 concrete examples of the lies and manipulation we were up against. Below, we’ve pulled it all together into one master list that everyone needs to see.
As we head into 2025, I only expect the Press to get worse. But it’s my hope that this compilation will help us all be better equipped to recognize, and call out their garbage whenever we see it.
The facts laid out here prove it’s time for a new era of journalism, led by folks who aren’t beholden to rich bosses, and will never ever back down to Trump. Which is why we’ve assembled an army of activists and independent journalists for our Watchdog Coalition—to rally The Resistance and lead the charge on the road ahead.
This is what you are supporting when you sign up as a paid subscriber—real actions, making a true difference, every single day. So if you haven’t yet, help us kick off the new year by joining here today
Happy New Year! Onward!
Scott
Please like and re-stack this article! What do you think is the biggest Press fail? Let me know your thoughts on corporate media’s 2024 coverage in the comments.
1st Edition: 8/11/24
The first week of selecting only 5 fails proved to be difficult. There were so many errors and false stories flying around. But the 5 we picked, turned out to be doozies.
Walz’s Military Service
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The coverage of Tim Walz’s military record has been atrocious. He proudly served our military for 24 years and his record was impeccable. Walz is a true patriot. But that’s not what they cover. Instead, they’ve taken JD Vance’s lying spin and turned them into headlines. The Trump campaign’s lies and innuendos are disgusting and un-American, and it’s a disgrace that so many news outlets choose to parrot them.
Trump’s $10 Million Egyptian Scandal
A report reveals the FBI was investigating if Egypt gave Trump a $10 million cash bribe, before fmr. AG Barr abruptly closed the case. It is described by Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig as the “most serious allegation of a bribe in White House history.” I’ve been investigating Trump’s ties to Egypt since 2016, and I can tell you there’s so much more to the story. But you’re not hearing about it, because it goes against the mainstream media’s pro-Trump narrative.
Donald’s Private Flight With Project 2025 Leader
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We also learned this week that in 2022, Trump took a private flight with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. Mainstream media is mostly still running with Trump’s lie that he has nothing to do with Project 2025, but we all know the manifesto is a roadmap for his dictatorship.
Trump’s Meltdown
After several days of moping around in his bunker, Trump held a “press conference,” where he dodged softball questions and had a lie-filled meltdown. But the headlines that followed attempted to normalize Trump’s behavior, and once again exposed how supportive mainstream media really is of Trump.
Press Lied for Trump About Debates
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We won’t forget how the Press ran headlines saying Trump agreed to debate Harris, when in reality he had done the exact opposite and chickened out of their scheduled debate. We put on a massive pressure campaign to call them out for it, forcing many mainstream media outlets to finally change their headlines to reflect the truth. But the damage was already done.
2nd Edition: 8/18/24
Over the second week of watching, I first thought there was a notable improvement in the way the corporate media covered Trump’s lies. But these 5 key stories made it clear we still had a long way to go.
Trump’s AI Crowd Conspiracy Theory
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The Press went to great lengths to cover Donald’s debunked conspiracy about AI-generated images of crowds at Kamala’s rallies. It was tragic. Reporters were laughing at how stupid you’d have to be to actually believe it, but they repeated every line and posted Trump’s claims as headlines anyway.
After we ran a very aggressive campaign, many outlets updated their headlines to make it clear Trump’s claims were false. But it was too little too late. Now this baseless conspiracy theory will live forever, and will be a common talking point among the MAGA faithful for years.
Pro tip for the Press: Stop making Donald’s lies your headlines. Just call him a liar. And why didn’t anyone call him out for this at his “press conference?”
Trump Trashes Medal of Honor
On Thursday, Trump denigrated the Medal of Honor because, according to his warped mind, most of its recipients are either dead soldiers or “in very bad shape.” This from the guy who called our Veterans “suckers” and “losers”. What a disgrace.
For less than 24 hours following this ridiculous statement, we saw a small stream of blowback and coverage from a handful of outlets. And then crickets. If Kamala Harris said anything like this, mainstream media would act like it was the end of the world, and the reporting on it would be endless. They should treat Trump the same way.
Trump’s Pennsylvania Hate Rally
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The intense coverage of Donald’s most recent hate rally was atrocious. His speech was another lie-filled, rambling, hateful rant with no actual substance.
But that’s not the story you got from the mainstream media’s headlines. Instead, they used titles like, “Urged to Focus on the Economy, Trump Leans Into Attacks of Harris” from The NY Times, or Politico’s “Trump tries to undermine Harris’ legitimacy as a candidate.”
Trump lied a lot. That should be the headline of everything he ever does.
The Musk “Interview” of Trump
Reporting on the Musk “interview” with Trump was just horrible. The Press gave Donald a pass and primarily focused their headlines on the fact that there were technical issues. Almost everyone failed to call out his lies or his anti-worker, sexist statements for what they really were: the unhinged ravings of a lunatic.
Trump’s “Press Conference” Part 2
Earlier this week, when Trump announced he was holding another lie-filled rant he called a “press conference,” we started a pressure campaign to demand mainstream media fact-check the event in real time, or refuse to air it live.
We actually made some progress, but it wasn’t nearly enough. MSNBC did not air the “presser” at all, while CNN cut away twice and did some live fact-checking. But the news orgs that covered it focused almost exclusively on the question of whether Trump is “entitled” to personal attacks against Kamala Harris.
This is a great start, but we MUST do better. That's why we are constantly building our massive social media campaigns to demand the Press actually do their jobs.
3rd Edition: 8/25/24
For our third edition of Corporate Media Fails, we had a ton of garbage to pick from. Here are five of the major failures from that week.
Fake Taylor Swift Support
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In a desperate attempt for attention, Trump shared AI-generated images suggesting that he had been endorsed by Taylor Swift. One of the images explicitly reads, “Taylor Swift Wants You to Vote For Donald Trump.” To be clear, Taylor Swift did not endorse him. Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris is inevitable, it’s only a matter of when.
Press didn’t question Trump’s sanity, or call out his narcissistic delusion. Instead, they used the lie as a ploy to get clicks.
The headlines should have said, “Trump lies about Taylor Swift,” with warning labels on any images shared. But they had titles like, “Was Trump endorsed by Taylor Swift?” And put up images of Trump’s post that didn’t have a warning label on it. That’s exactly how you DON’T cover it.
The Democratic Convention
This week had some absolutely horrible coverage of the Democratic Convention.
The Press tried to spotlight the protests. They parroted Trump’s lie that Biden was forced out of the race. They spread complete nonsense about the timing of Biden's speech on Monday, suggesting that it was purposefully pushed out of prime time by the DNC. All of it fell flat.
After the Obamas gave powerful speeches on Wednesday, it seemed like the Press was going to lean in on the positivity of the moment. But it didn’t take long for them to start pushing out juvenile criticisms of Kamala’s powerful speech.
The mainstream media’s honeymoon phase with the new Democratic nominee is over. And we will remain vigilant to call them out for their massive failures, in real time, at a constant.
RFK Dropping Out
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The mainstream media is covering Bob Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump as if it is the biggest game-changer of this election cycle. It is not.
In reality, it helps Kamala Harris. The whole purpose of Bob’s campaign was to have the Kennedy name on the ballot in swing states, in order to confuse Democratic voters. It failed miserably. But the Press would never report it that way, because it goes against their pro-Trump narrative.
Bombshell Report on Trump Funneling Campaign Money
CNN released a brutal investigative report titled, “Trump’s businesses are raking in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns–including his own.”
The investigation confirms, once again, what I’ve been reporting since 2016: Trump’s political career is one big disgusting grift. It’s been 48 hours since they posted the story, and it has yet to gain any steam. This was a real squandered opportunity.
CNN Removes Attack on Walz After Our Pressure Campaign
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The report on Trump funneling money wasn’t CNN’s only major blunder. A few hours before Tim Walz made his epic speech, CNN attacked him with a headline that read: “As he prepares to take the stage, 48 Republicans accuse him of ‘abandoning’ his fellow National Guard Members.”
The “story” was about 48 MAGA Republicans who wrote a letter attacking Walz’s military record. None of them served with Walz, or had personal knowledge of his service. We immediately called CNN out for it, and the headline was replaced 24 minutes later, never to be seen again.
We must always push mainstream media to do better at a constant. We can't ever let them get away with spreading lies or propaganda.
4th Edition: 9/1/24
For our fourth edition of 5 Corporate Media Fails, there was a lot of terrible coverage to choose from. Here are five of the biggest Press fails from the week.
Arlington National Cemetery Incident
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After Trump’s disastrous stunt at Arlington National Cemetery, Fox News told a lie so bad it was hit with a fact check label on Twitter/X. To distract from the embarrassing incident, they completely made up a story that Biden skipped an event to honor troops who were killed in Afghanistan. There was no such event planned.
In case you haven’t heard, one of Trump’s goons “pushed aside” a cemetery staffer who was trying to prevent the campaign from filming in forbidden areas. This led to a rare rebuke from the US Army and widespread condemnation.
Fox “News” couldn’t stand all of this negative attention on their dear leader, so instead of telling the truth—they told another big lie and pointed the finger at Biden.
We see you, Fox.
Trump’s Grotesque Social Media Posts
This week, while the Press said Trump was going to be out “barnstorming” swing states, Donald was back at his old vile tricks of posting garbage online.
The corporate media should be outraged. Instead, they downplay the lies, his promotion of QAnon, and Trump’s violent, sexist, and racist attacks. Even worse—they share it along with misleading headlines, and without warning labels.
I’ll say it again: No media outlet should be re-sharing disgusting images and messaging that Trump is posting. You are only making it worse.
CNN’s “Undecided” Voter
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Following Kamala’s epic Convention speech, CNN aired a panel of what they called “undecided” voters. When asked, only one of the panelists said that he would be voting for Trump.
Turns out, this panelist has an extensive history of strong support for Trump. And what’s more—they claim to have told CNN this several times, but he says they insisted he participate in the segment anyway.
We launched a pressure campaign to call them out, and a few hours later CNN issued a stale response essentially blaming the panelist. They offered no apology and took no accountability. Corporate media at its finest.
Trump’s New Indictment is Not Bad for Harris
Following the Supreme Court’s backwards decision on presidential immunity, special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment for Trump’s Jan 6 case. This is terrible for corporate media’s pro-MAGA narrative, so several news outlets decided that they’d act like the news was somehow bad for Harris.
Give me a break. It’s just like the old headlines of “Trump gets arrested, this is why that’s bad for Biden.” If found guilty, Trump would certainly face years in prison.
The Biggest Interview Ever
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Kamala’s interview on CNN was hyped up by the media to be the biggest interview in the world, as if it was going to be the ultimate test for Harris and Walz.
The Press hoped Kamala Harris would fail, and in the lead up to the interview, the corporate media took every shot they could to preemptively undermine her performance. Especially CNN, who was hilariously trying to build up the “high stakes” of the interview that they were hosting.
At the end of the day, Kamala crushed it and there was nothing for MAGA or corporate media to attack. Dana Bash certainly tried to give them fodder though, like when she asked about Trump’s attacks on Kamala’s race. But Harris expertly shot it down: "Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”
5th Edition: 9/8/24
For the fifth week, things started to escalate on an international scale. And even Putin jokingly “endorsing” Harris was covered wrong. Things kept getting worse.
Putin Did Not “Endorse” Harris
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Fox, The Hill, CBS News, Newsweek, Axios and countless others shared headlines straight out of the Russian propaganda playbook, with titles like “Putin says he 'supports' Harris in US election.”
Putin did not seriously endorse Kamala Harris. He was joking.
It's no coincidence that the corporate media started circulating this story right around the time of a bombshell DoJ indictment, which alleges Russian-linked media executives were paying GOP propagandists as they spread lies and disinformation.
The fake endorsement story was a great way to distract from the damning indictment, and the obvious fact that Putin clearly wants Trump to win.
Trump Admits He Lost
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During a recent podcast interview, Trump admitted he lost the 2020 election. Finally coming clean on the Big Lie, Donald said Biden “beat us by a whisker. It was a terrible thing.” This is the third time Trump admitted he lost over the last month alone.
Instead of round-the-clock coverage on every news channel, we essentially got crickets from corporate media. Surely not the attention it deserves.
Trump and Vance Made Truly Horrible Statements
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There were so many terrible responses this inept duo gave this week that the Press must’ve gotten bored with it—or their corporate bosses made sure they ignored it.
Let’s start with Trump and JD Vance’s horrible remarks on childcare. When asked about his plan to lower costs for childcare, JD Vance said, “maybe grandpa and grandma want to help a little bit more.” No, just, no.
And when confronted with a similar question, Trump replied by rambling on about nothing: “You know, I was somebody–we had Senator Marco Rubio. And my daughter Ivanka, was so impactful on that issue.” What in the world?
After the terrible tragedy in Georgia this week, JD Vance said we have to accept that school shootings are a “fact of life,” and that we need to “deal with it.” I, like most Americans, refuse to give up on keeping our children safe.
In these instances and so many more, we’ve seen the Press try to defend these statements by couching them with their own made up justifications and context. More proof that we can never let up the pressure on corporate media.
Covering the Wrong Stories
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Corporate media really dropped the ball when it came to prioritizing what was important to share with the American public this week. John McCain‘s son, Liz and Dick Cheney, 101 of the biggest CEOs, and another major labor union endorsed Kamala Harris—where was the constant coverage? Why didn’t they cover Biden's executive order and awesome speech on Friday?
It’s because they were too busy focusing on Trump’s rants, and spreading MAGA propaganda unchecked.
Trump failed miserably during his address to an economic club, and even opened himself up to a new defamation lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll. Donald proved all week that he’s not fit to run a blender, but the corporate media continues to cover him like he’s a normal candidate. This is at best malpractice.
Trump’s Brain Failures
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The major networks still refuse to call out Trump’s brain failures, normalizing his behavior. Only a few journalists have spoken out about Donald’s cognitive decline.
Live, on air, veteran journalist and MSNBC Contributor Mike Barnicle called Trump “damaged,” and “delusional.” Referring to some of Donald’s deranged social media posts, he said “you wouldn’t repeat the words in front of your children.”
And then Barnicle perfectly described the “false equivalency” the Press holds between Trump and Harris. As he explained, the corporate media will nitpick any slight policy change by Harris, while acting like Trump’s unhinged words are somehow equally important to that.
Like we have been saying for over 8 years, Barnicle said the Press “doesn’t cover the man for how dangerous he is.”
We need more journalists to step up and call out the MAGA bias in corporate media like Barnicle did, immediately. If they’re going to cover Trump, we deserve actual reporting on how absolutely bonkers Donald is.
6th Edition: 9/15/24
On the sixth week of looking out for subjects for our series, I started going pretty public with my criticisms of specific networks.
CNN’s Terrible Debate Day Headline
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Around 7:45am on the morning of the debate, I saw this terrible headline by CNN: “Harris faces a nowhere-to-hide moment in upcoming debate, and the price of failure is enormous.”
I am sick and tired of corporate media lowering the bar for Trump and setting impossible standards for Kamala with these clickbait headlines. And they did this in such an underhanded way, to make it seem like the VP has somehow been hiding from the campaign trail.
So I immediately tweeted this response, and it went viral:
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Magically, 11 minutes later, CNN changed their tune and that bogus attack headline was updated: “To succeed in the debate, the vice president faces three difficult tasks.” Better, but the damage was already done.
Trump Lost The Debate. And No, It Wasn’t Rigged
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Trump lost the debate. That much is clear. But the corporate media isn’t reporting it that way. The Press is too busy covering Donald’s lies about a “rigged” debate, and entertaining the ridiculous idea that Trump actually won.
When they post a story repeating Donald’s claims, they aren’t leading with the fact that every single news org said he lost. And they don’t fact-check his lies when they share headlines like, “Kamala Harris-Donald Trump Debate Was Rigged? ABC Whistleblower Claims Surface.”
This is how Trump gets away with saying whatever he wants, posting any random poll from Twitter as evidence he “won,” because the corporate media repeats it as a fact. And the rest of us are left to try and decipher the truth. Major fail.
Trump’s Racist Lies
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Trump took his anti-immigrant scare tactics to a whole new level with these disgusting pet-eating lies, and then played dumb when schools and hospitals were being shut down due to bomb threats. Trump’s lies are putting real lives in danger, and that is how it should be reported.
While quietly debunking the claims, the Press was purposefully sharing Trump’s lie, rolling their eyes and making it seem like it was just some metaphor for his views on immigration. And when they reported on the days of school closures and threats, where was the blame for Trump?
Donald’s lies are responsible for the upheaval in Springfield, Ohio. The fact that corporate media didn’t call him out at a “Hillary’s emails” level for it, is definitely a top fail from this week.
The Blame Game: Afghanistan
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In August of 2021, I wrote an op-ed in Newsweek titled, “Stop blaming Biden for Afghanistan. He’s cleaning up Trump’s mess.” That headline still holds true.
At a time when the Press was trying to lay all of the blame on Biden for the exit from Afghanistan, I wrote, “Trump ordered the release of 5,000 of the top captured Taliban fighters…Those same fighters are now threatening the streets of Kabul.”
This week, Republicans in Congress released a propaganda “report” about the Afghanistan withdrawal, once again falsely laying the blame on Joe Biden. White House spokesperson Sharon Yang summed up perfectly, saying it was based on “cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases.”
Now the corporate media is up to its old tricks, once again parroting the rightwing talking points, and leaving out the impossible circumstances Trump created in Afghanistan. Another enormous fail by the Press this week.
Fact-Checking The Wrong Candidate
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Just yesterday, the Press started circulating fact-checks on the Harris campaign. For years we have watched them give all their attention and bias to Trump, promoting his nonsense as truth. And now they want to nitpick some tweets, to try and put Trump on equal footing with Kamala.
Because of Donald’s lies, hospitals were on lockdown and schools were closed this week due to threats. The US Capitol was attacked because of his conspiracy theories, and countless Americans died from his Covid lies. But the corporate media wants to attack Kamala’s campaign for calling out Trump.
It’s a disgrace. And this unbalanced treatment must end. The Press must do better.
7th Edition: 9/22/24
For the seventh week of analysis, things were getting beyond out of hand. And as you can see by the topics we chose, it’s ridiculous we had to fight all of these lies.
Harris Coverage
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The pro-MAGA corporate media posts headlines and new articles every time Trump opens his mouth, normalizing his behavior and failing to connect the dots between his rhetoric and the terrible real-world consequences. But when it comes to Kamala Harris, the Press doesn’t seem to be interested in a candidate who presents actual policy ideas in complete, thoughtful sentences.
That’s why we’re focusing on her speeches and rallies again, and why we’ll be calling out the corporate media constantly until they start to do the same.
Teamster Councils Endorse Harris
When the news broke that the Teamsters would not be endorsing a candidate, the Press decided to spin it as a loss for Harris and a win for Trump. Citing an unscientific online poll, corporate media was reporting that Trump had received nearly 60% of the vote of members.
What they left out was that only a small percentage of members participated in this “poll” that was advertised on the back of a magazine mailer. Only hours later the news broke that dozens of local councils of Teamsters, representing more than 1,000,000 members, endorsed Harris. But the damage had already been done, and once again, the corporate media got away with spinning a false narrative for Trump.
Blaming Democratic Rhetoric for Political Violence
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Trump and Vance kept repeating the lines that Democrats were to blame for political violence, and the Press ran with it again and again. Nearly every corporate media outlet was guilty of falling into the trap.
Trump demonizes so many different groups and stokes awful violence with his rhetoric, but the Press continues to try and blame Democrats for the consequences. It’s dangerous, it’s perpetuating the violence, and simply not true. This was a major fail.
Trump’s Not the Only One Being Targeted
Just weeks ago, a man was arrested and indicted on 14 counts, including communications with a threat to kidnap or injure Harris. But the corporate media floats a narrative that Trump is alone in the threats department.
Donald is not the only one being threatened, but he sure is the only one that uses it to fundraise. The Press is only helping him and failing the rest of us, in a major way.
Once Again, Trump’s Brain Failures
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And to top it all off, the corporate media was silent when Donald said he believed there was a crowd at the debate (there wasn’t), and when he went on an unhinged rant claiming to be the savior of all women, calling them unhappy and unhealthy. He doubled down on his absurd claims and lied too many times to count, but the Press continues to treat him like a normal candidate.
We aren’t asking for the Press to call on Trump to drop out. It’s too late for that. All we want is for them to call out Donald for his lies and the danger he poses to America, before it’s too late.
Corporate media failed us again this week in a big way. That’s why we’ll be sharing this post with millions of people on every major social media platform, to call them out for letting America down. And to get these stories straight.
8th Edition: 9/29/24
For week 8, we spent time correcting the record regarding lies about Kamala and the border as well. It was a daily battle.
Zelensky
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As you might have seen, President Zelensky was in the United States this week. Yes, Trump met with him, but so did Kamala. Harris looked presidential and Trump embarrassed himself, looking like Putin’s puppet.
Corporate media acted like Donald was on equal footing with the Vice President. He clearly is not. And when Trump used the occasion to spew lies and air grievances, the Press covered it like it was some groundbreaking news about Ukraine. And then they moved on. Pathetic.
Kamala’s Border Visit
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Kamala Harris went to the border and gave an awesome speech, laying out her policy vision in clear detail. It was exactly what the Press and MAGA have been begging for since the moment the campaign started. And of course, it wasn’t good enough for them. Just like the CNN interview—and everything else Kamala does—corporate media used it as a trap to try and catch her in some fake controversy. Coverage of the border visit was a complete and utter failure by corporate media.
Republican Amnesia
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This week there were at least two times when the Press completely dropped the ball, and let MAGA get away with misdirections and lies. The first was when GOP Rep Clay Higgins belted out a terrible, racist tweet. When asked about it, Speaker Mike Johnson played dumb, and acted like he hadn't seen it. There was no follow up. No push back. At the very least they should have read him the tweet, but they didn’t.
Also, after news of damning new scandals broke about Mark Robinson, Trump was asked if he was withdrawing his endorsement of the embattled NC Gov candidate. Despite the fact that Robinson wasn’t invited to the latest NC Trump rally, Donald responded by lying, saying he didn’t “know the situation.” Instead of calling him out for it in real time, the Press just let him walk away. They’re not even trying.
Biden’s UN Speech
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This week President Biden delivered a poignant and impassioned speech in front of the UN General Assembly, addressing some of the most important issues facing the world today. But you wouldn’t know that if you looked at press coverage, which was beyond abysmal. They criticized him, and used it as a chance to attack Kamala Harris. And by the next day, it wasn’t on the front page of almost any major news orgs. A complete failure by corporate media.
Trump Fails
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There were quite a few deranged Trump stories this week that the Press simply ignored. Ads were released by women who have credible stories of abuse by Trump. Donald gave a long, creepy rant insulting women, calling himself their savior. He held another unhinged press conference, and started selling tacky gold watches at the cost of $100,000 each. Plus, he can’t stop obsessing over the fact Kamala worked at McDonalds. But when the American people needed them the most, the corporate media let us down. Again.
9th Edition: 10/6/24
Week 9 left us with less than a month to go. The lies from the Trump camp were beyond hateful. They were even lying about hurricane assistance.
Harris and Cheney Unite
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Right before an event with Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney, Trump decided to whine like the baby he is–CNN and MSNBC took the bait. Instead of running a story just about how momentous an event it was, they decided to run terrible headlines like CNN’s “Trump bashes GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney as She Campaigns With Harris.”
This is exactly why I published my article before both CNN and MSNBC, Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney Unite on Campaign Trail to Beat Trump. Because I knew corporate media would try and spin it for Donald.
Fake October Surprises
Whether it is fake stories about immigrants or lies about hurricane relief, the Press is running rampant with pro-Trump propaganda, desperately searching for an October surprise. Several outlets tried to paint Kamala’s VP pick as a mistake. Politico ran with “Publicly: Everything’s Fine–Privately: The Harris Team is Worried.” But nothing is sticking.
The real October surprise came on Thursday in the form of Jack Smith’s damning new 165 pages of evidence he filed detailing Trump’s extensive efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election. But because this wasn’t the story they were hoping for, the Press quickly tried to move on. This is a big October Surprise, and Trump hasn’t seen the worst of it yet. But the corporate media is going to keep on trying to create one on Harris anyway. Fail.
VP Debate Spin
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Corporate media really tried to spin the debate in favor of JD Vance, but they just couldn’t do it. It started with garbage headlines like, “Tim Walz’s bubble-wrapped campaign.” They later changed that headline to “Tim Walz speaks loudly and carries a big schtick.” Then there was the constant barrage of negative coverage about when Walz was in China that didn’t stick either.
We beat out the Press in that messaging war with our #WinningWithWalz campaign, which trended on social media before, and during the debate. Afterwards, many in corporate media tried to spin it as a JD Vance win, and others called it a tie. In reality, Walz won the debate hands down against a pathological liar.
Stop Airing Trump Live
On Saturday CNN and MSNBC both aired Trump’s Butler, PA hate rally live. Pretty much everyone else streamed it live. There is no excuse for this. I’ve literally said it hundreds of times. Stop. Airing. Trump. Live. It’s complete nonsense.
Hurricane Lies
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While countless Americans are suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Press has circulated so many lies from MAGA-land regarding recovery efforts.
The truth is, FEMA was on the ground assisting before the hurricane even hit, and every governor of the impacted states has complimented Biden’s relief efforts.
Yet, the corporate media keeps on repeating Trump’s lies about it all as if it is news. Donald lied about immigrants getting more money than citizens, he lied about working out a Starlink deal that was already done, and he lied about the Biden’s administrations recovery efforts.
There are even foreign influence campaigns, reportedly from China and Russia, spreading this web of misinformation. And the corporate media is falling for it, repeating those lies in their headlines.
10th Edition: 10/13/24
Week ten I had to waste time fighting a debunked conspiracy theory that Kamala was working with a teleprompter, when it was a translator for questions being asked in Spanish.
Kamala Had No Teleprompter
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The lies and conspiracy theories that spread like a wildfire about Kamala’s successful press blitz this week were beyond baffling. The Press repeated lies saying her 60 Minutes interview was scripted and heavily edited in her favor. It wasn’t. They posted claims that the media blitz was born out of desperation, and made it seem like voters still don’t know who Kamala Harris is.
But it was Kamala’s barely-covered Univision town hall, where the corporate media really failed. First, CNN and others took a jab at Harris, making it seem like she failed to answer a question about Trump’s virtues. She responded gracefully and masterfully—but you wouldn’t read that in the Press.
Then, Trump put out a ridiculous lie that a translator screen at the Univision town hall was actually a teleprompter. There was absolutely no proof of it, but corporate media ran with it anyway. Soon after, AFP, The Daily Beast, and others posted stories discrediting the lie. But the damage was done, and the subsequent stories buried what Kamala actually said.
Democrats Are Doing The Work
Whether it was CNN saying “Democrats grow anxious,” Axios calling it the “Blue Wall Blues,” or Fox saying Dems are “scared to death,” the Press spent the week saying Democrats are worried about Kamala’s campaign.
Using unnamed sources who obviously know nothing about what’s actually going on, The Hill, Politico, NBC, Wall Street Journal, AP, and others all ran with this same bogus narrative. It looked like a coordinated attack, with each stirring up fake controversies, repeating Trump’s lies, and trying to sow division within the party.
So let me set the record straight. Many folks are indeed worried, but it’s not about Kamala’s campaign. Democrats are concerned because wannabe-dictator Trump could wind up in the White House again. And the corporate media keeps propping up his flailing campaign with these major fails.
Trump’s Mental Decline Story Disappears
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When The New York Times released a scathing article on Trump’s rapid mental decline last week, it gave an opening for the rest of the Press to follow suit. We were hoping this would be a turning point, an opportunity for other outlets to hone in on Donald’s brain failures and the fact he is not fit to twist an Oreo. Or dip it in the milk.
But the article came and went, and the corporate media just kept on normalizing Trump’s erratic ranting and raving. And the Times is already back to their old tricks, repeating Donald’s lies and attacking Kamala Harris over fake controversies. This is a major press fail of the highest order. And if Trump were to win, the abysmal coverage of his cognitive decline would be one of the major reasons why.
Obama Speech Coverage Was Horrific
On Thursday, former President Obama gave a captivating speech at his first rally for Harris, in front of thousands of fired-up Democrats in Pittsburgh. It was one of the best campaign speeches Barack has ever given. So we released a rapid response article right after he spoke, because we knew the Press would do everything they could to spin this story to look bad for Kamala Harris. And that’s exactly what they did.
Many outlets took one of his jokes out of context, and made it seem like Obama was making fun of Trump for wearing diapers. He wasn’t. On top of that, most news orgs ran with attack headlines focused on Barack’s outreach to Black men at an event before the speech, as if it’s a bad thing for the campaign. Major fail by the Press.
Corporate Media is Letting Trump Hide From Them
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Despite the fact that Trump bailed on his 60 Minutes interview, and chickened out on doing another debate, I have seen so many garbage headlines out there repeating Trump’s lie that Kamala is avoiding the Press.
Even after the whirlwind media blitz this week, and as Donald continues to hide in his bubble, the prevailing narrative from corporate media is that Harris isn’t doing enough.
It’s untrue and absolutely pathetic.
11th Edition: 10/20/24
For week 11, we had to highlight a lot of stories the Press simply refused to cover. I will always wonder why they failed so miserably on this front.
Trump’s Declining Mental Health
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Over the last 8 years, we’ve run countless campaigns to push for the Press to cover Trump’s mental decline, and we've been forced to bring up their failure to do so in almost every edition of this series.
But it would appear the tide may FINALLY be changing, at least for now. On Friday, Newsweek ran an op-ed from Mary Trump on Donald’s brain failures. MSNBC, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Daily Beast, LA Times, and Axios covered his mental decline this week. Even Fox “News” ran a headline bringing attention to the uptick in coverage: “Media goes after Trump over mental fitness and ‘decline.’” I think this was supposed to be an attack, but it isn’t the flex they meant it to be.
Don’t get me wrong—the Press is still sanewashing Trump, normalizing his behavior whenever possible, and creating a false equivalency with Kamala’s energetic and thoughtful campaign. So we have to keep our eye on this, and constantly call out anyone who fails to cover Donald honestly.
Threats to FEMA Are Due to Trump
Earlier this week, a North Carolina man was arrested after threatening FEMA workers. Regional recovery operations for Hurricane Helene were disrupted, and door-to-door efforts were halted. The man, who was convinced by propaganda that federal responders were refusing to help people in need, urged folks to “overtake” a local FEMA site.
It’s bad enough that the Press actually gave this man a platform to spread his claims. But to make it worse, ABC, Fox, New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, and many others reported on the threats without even trying to connect the story to Trump. Some didn’t even mention Donald’s name in their articles, when he is clearly directly responsible for those threats.
Not including Trump’s lies in these reports is an enormous corporate media fail.
Coverage of Kamala
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Another topic we’ve been over countless times is the biased coverage of Kamala on the campaign trail. The Press has been forced to evolve slightly on this issue as well, but it’s not even close to good enough. They aren’t reporting on her rallies or speeches nearly enough, and corporate media continues to undermine her campaign, and attack her in ways they wouldn’t dare do to Trump. It’s outrageous, it’s obvious, and it needs to stop.
Univision Refuses to Call Out Trump’s Lies
When Trump decided to spread his abhorrent, racist lies about pet-eating immigrants during his Univision town hall Wednesday, there was no fact-check whatsoever—not even when the network posted the full unhinged rant on social media.
One of the worst corporate media fails ever is bending to Trump’s demand for no fact-checks, just to get him on their network. In the future, real-time fact-checks should be mandatory for all public events featuring someone running for elected office. Easy fix.
Trump’s Exhausted
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On Friday, Trump appeared to take a nap at a campaign event. Trump’s own campaign adviser even said that Donald is “exhausted.” And like Kamala said on Friday, "If you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world.”
But where is the wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s inability to keep up with his campaign schedule? Why hasn’t The NY Times written ten articles about it already? Of course, that would go against the bogus pro-Trump narrative the corporate media bosses are trying desperately to spin.
12th Edition: 10/27/24
Our 12th edition tried to point out how ridiculous things had gotten in regards to the corporate media coverage.
Trump’s Fascism
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Trump is a fascist. He wants to be a dictator on (at least) day one, and do mass deportations and a ton of other horrible, racist, inhumane things. News orgs should be reporting nonstop on the fact that Trump is a fascist. Moving on.
Ignore the Polls
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Over the next 9 days you’ll hear corporate media obsess over bogus polling numbers. Ignore all of it. They won’t help us win, they will only drag us down. No matter what, the Press will try to make you believe the race is neck and neck, even if it isn’t. So let’s just keep doing the work.
Trump Assault Claims Involving Epstein
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Something that didn’t get nearly enough coverage is the new assault allegation against Trump. This is just one of dozens of credible sexual-related abuse claims against Trump that corporate media has already moved on from. But what makes this alleged attack stand out, is that Stacey Williams says it happened right in front of serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Instead of the wall-to-wall coverage this story deserved, corporate media buried it under mountains of pro-Trump propaganda. Absolutely disgusting.
The False Equivalency
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The differences between Kamala and Donald’s campaigns couldn’t be clearer. Harris has a much larger staff and volunteer operation, more money, more offices, and much more A-list talent. All Trump has, aside from a lazy campaign and a F-List of washed up phonies, is the corporate media’s bias.
Blocking Endorsements
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Despite the wishes of their Editorial Boards, The Washington Post and LA Times refused to endorse Kamala Harris—only after their rich owners stepped in. Unfortunately, these are not the only news orgs who have done this. It’s pure corruption. And it’s a scary preview of a Trump dictatorship.
13th Edition: 11/3/24
Our 13th and final edition showed how unhinged the Press coverage had gotten. Corporate media had willingly fallen into Trump’s traps.
Lying for Trump
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Since 2016, the Press has parroted Trump’s lies as if they’re the truth. We will never forget how they ran headlines saying Trump agreed to debate Harris, when in reality he had done the exact opposite. We put on a massive pressure campaign to call them out for it, forcing many corporate media outlets to finally change their headlines to reflect the truth. But the damage was already done.
Biased Coverage
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You don’t have to look far to find examples of the pro-Trump bias in the Press. They’ve found countless ways to hold Kamala to impossible double standards, while trying to create an outrageous false equivalency between the two candidates. And we’ve never shied away from calling them out for it.
Just look at what they did with the Democratic Convention. After nonstop glowing coverage of Donald’s unhinged RNC Cult Convention, the corporate media did everything they could to undermine Democrats.
They put a spotlight on protests, parroted Trump’s lie that Biden was forced out of the race, spread complete nonsense about the timing of Biden's appearance, and they immediately pounced on Kamala with juvenile criticisms of her powerful speech.
The honeymoon phase with Harris was officially over, and every day since then we’ve dealt with a deluge of negative coverage of Kamala.
Undermining Harris
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Nearly every news outlet has used cheap tricks to undermine Kamala Harris and prop up Donald’s flailing campaign. CNN has been one of the worst about this.
One prime example is CNN’s “undecided” voter fiasco. Following Kamala’s epic Convention speech, CNN aired a panel of what they called “undecided” voters, where only one of the panelists said that he would be voting for Trump.
Turns out, they had an extensive history of strong support for Trump. They also claim to have told this to CNN several times, but he says they insisted he participate anyway. Our friends at MeidasTouch Network exposed this story.
Refusing to Blame Trump for Chaos
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Ever since Donald stumbled down that dilapidated department store escalator in 2016, the Press has gone to great lengths to share every single one of his unhinged conspiracy theories, and post his lies as headlines. But time and time again they have turned a blind eye when it comes to reporting on the terrible consequences.
When a man threatened FEMA workers after Hurricane Helene, the Press completely ignored the fact Trump was the root of the problem. When Trump made his pet-eating lies, it led to bomb threats and the closure of schools, hospitals and government buildings in Springfield, Ohio. And most of corporate media refused to connect the dots between the chaos, and Trump’s hateful rhetoric.
Misleading Headlines
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I could give so many examples of times the Press has printed underhanded, misleading, click-bait headlines to favor Trump. One example is from the morning of the debate, when I saw this terrible CNN headline: “Harris faces a nowhere-to-hide moment in upcoming debate, and the price of failure is enormous.”
We have one of the largest social media networks in politics, and I’ll never hesitate to use it to fight back. So I immediately tweeted this response, and it went viral:
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Magically, 11 minutes later, CNN changed their tune and that bogus attack headline was updated: “To succeed in the debate, the vice president faces three difficult tasks.” But the damage was already done.
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