Get access to Brad Slager's "Riffed From the Headlines," a daily VIP feature where he looks to bring accountability to the mainstream media. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
Reporting on the Mirror – MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA
Paying their bills does not seem to matter.
The gang at Media Matters appears to be struggling. We covered last year when they had significant layoffs as a result of a costly lawsuit brought by Elon Musk. Now, they are at risk of losing their legal representation in that lawsuit. Mark Elias, and his Democrat-snuggling law firm, has been representing MMFA, but that may soon be ending.
In a communication with the media outfit, the firm has offered a payment scheme, but if the outfit does not make a significant payment soon, then the representation will halt:
Ezra Reese, the chair of Elias’s political law group, wrote in an email to Mr. Carusone and Media Matters’s lead fund-raiser, Mary Pat Bonner. Mr. Reese offered to wipe away about half of the unpaid tally in exchange for payment of $2.25 million within about a week. If the group did not commit to the payment plan, Mr. Reese wrote, his firm would expect full payment of the original amount and would “go pens down and take steps to withdraw from the case by the end of the month.”
NEW: In a sign of what could be in store for other targets of Trump & his allies, Media Matters (@mmfa) is struggling to survive.
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) July 25, 2025
The Dem-aligned group has racked up $15m in legal bills, dialed back its criticism of Trump & Musk & contemplated closing. https://t.co/Ow8Y89h220
Stealth Story Evolution – PBS / NPR
Now, you say that thing we have called to happen for years and you fought against is actually happening?! Go figure…
Previously, we covered how PBS declared that after the government funding for public broadcasters had been yanked it wasn’t going anywhere. It was as if the years of mewling about the threats and dangers that would happen were all melodramatic garbage.
Now, we get a report that after the budgets were slashed for both PBS and NPR, the two networks are enjoying a surge of donations, the likes of which they have never encountered before.
It is almost as if all that time we said “You are able to go ahead and get yourselves funded,” we had been correct all along.
scoop: donations to NPR and PBS stations have exploded, with donors across the country giving in unprecedented numbers since Congress cut federal funding https://t.co/FbfzTTfBqF
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) July 24, 2025
Both Kinds of Standards – CNN
Okay, it seems as if you are saying this is actually bad news…
It has been a comedy of partisan desperation to see CNN attempting to report on the economy since Trump retook office. Basically, any report of good economic returns has to be spun as bad news. Unexpected jobs reports have led to investigations as to what is behind it. The network was disappointed when the Iran bombing actually led to lower oil prices. And the best when there was the promise that tariffs would cause a spike in automobile prices, then two months later automobile prices remaining flat was said to be a bad economic sign. This from the same reporter.
One other indicator that has rankled CNN has been after months of promised doom, the stock market continues to hit record highs. And so, in predictable fashion, this too needs to have negativity attached to it. Recall now, during Bidenomics, that all the negative metrics in the country were countered by the stock market performing well. Today, however, this is reinterpreted – this is a sign of greed taking place, according to the network.
Even CNN’s stock ticker tries to spin a record-breaking run on Wall Street. How utterly pathetic: pic.twitter.com/gKiK6RMCaE
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) July 25, 2025
Anti-Social Media – GAWKER
Now see?! THIS is why nobody misses you!
In another outlet/lawsuit development, we have the recent passing of Hulk Hogan. The former wrestler and performer has a varied history, one in which involves a conflict with the aforementioned former web outlet.
In fact, Hogan is the reason that Gawker is a former site, as he sued them into oblivion when they published a sex tape involving him en flagrante. It was for this reason that one former staffer at the site was less than human in declaring they would be dancing on Hulk’s grave. Because, seemingly in their opinion, Gawker was completely blameless in its actions. You get the sense they were tired of the blowback given the post has been deleted.
Probably for the better they removed the post.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) July 25, 2025
Probably for the best would have been not broadcasting to the world you are a heartless ghoul. pic.twitter.com/ySSpBEo9sJ
Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN
You kind of exposed the playbook there, John.
We continue to be amused by the bifurcated approach in the press to news stories this week. On the one hand, they are calling for the release of documents (the Epstein Files) while on the other, they are supremely bothered by the release of documents (Tulsi Gabbard’s Russian collusion releases).
It is patently obvious that wanting the Epstein Files released is not about transparency but about hanging Donald Trump as culpable of…something. John King actually tipped his hand to this goal, as he came out with a “report,” saying how the MAGA people he knows (really, John?) have all said they are NOT switching allegiance from Trump over this controversy that has mostly been cooked up to a boil in the press.
🚨NEW: CNN's John King reports *NOT A SINGLE TRUMP VOTER* he spoke to has flipped on Trump over Epstein🚨
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) July 23, 2025
"I just reached out to a whole bunch of our Trump voters ... None of them said they're turning on the president. And they all say costs, the economy, are way more important… pic.twitter.com/dXfPb0rwkl
