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!
Presentation Paradox – THE NEW YORK TIMES
We are unsure how you can deny content provided by…uh, you.
In a case of opposing the Trump administration by rote, regardless of the issue, reporter Minho Kim displays the most stark example of this condition. On the issue of the widespread fraud committed in the childcare sector, Kim insists that the claims made by the Trump White House are made in the absence of any proof. Then Kim manages to go on to assert that the fraud has been established in many states – IN THE VERY SAME SENTENCE.
I think @nytimes got so used to saying that the Trump admin did something “without citing evidence” that they didn’t realize they mention the “evidence” in the same sentence. pic.twitter.com/Ebcgl2yJq3
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 6, 2026
Presentation Paradox – NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Not sure how you question his quote, as you provide he contents of his quote.
Identically to The Times, NPR tries mightily to discredit Nick Shirley, the citizen journalist who shamed the bulk of the news media by doing their jobs in investigating the Minnesota fraud issues. Without surprise, many news outlets have turned their attention to discrediting Shirley, instead of looking into the extent of the fraud taking place.
Recommended
In its lame effort, NPR comes out to state Shirley gave no details on the level of outrage he is receiving from protesters. It then, in the following sentence, provided the very details they say he never gives.
"I'm attacked every time I do my job," he said, without citing specifics. "When I leave my house to go to work, I'm violently assaulted. I've been bear sprayed and beaten down. I've been almost killed."
— Dude from the Hinterlands... (@FlyoverRevolt) January 1, 2026
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – POLITIFACT
When the facts disrupt the fact-check from the fact-checkers.
On New Year's, the managing editor of PolitiFact, Katie Sanders, insisted that her outlet is "checking both sides" of the political spectrum. The gang at NewsBusters tabulated the checks made in 2025, by party, and shows this claim needed to be rated as FALSE.
Republicans were overwhelmingly looked at for fact checks three times as often as Democrats, and they were judged to be "False" 85 percent of the time, compared to a meager 35 percent.
PBS host: Trump says there's media bias against him. How you gut-check that? @PolitiFact executive editor Katie Sanders: We're checking both sides. We put some Democrats on our year-end "Readers Choice" ballot (They all came in last, because PolitiFact is by libs, for libs).… pic.twitter.com/YzSK025TLw
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 7, 2026
Demo-lition Project – CNN / MS NOW
It is rather offensive to display these accurate metrics.
The final year-end ratings for cable channels have been shown, and the news networks are looking more enemic. MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) dropped more than one-fourth of its audience over the year. CNN fell at a lower rate, only 16 percent, but that is from an already depleted audience figure. For the year, CNN was bested in the ratings by The Hallmark Channel and Home and Garden TV.
And the networks cannot sweep this away as a general malaise in the news industry. Fox News saw its audience grow last year, ranking as the #1 channel in all of cable, and on many nights it draws a larger audience than the major networks in the primetime hours.
2025 cable prime time ratings. https://t.co/OjeUe4hQhQ pic.twitter.com/mHeV5oQucS
— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 1, 2026
Both Kinds of Standards – SEMAFOR
How was only one person named in this controversy?
It is apparent that CBS News is going to be a constant source of drama for the media elites this year. The internal strife with Bari Weiss taking over the news division has been scrutinized, with accusations that she is turning CBS into a pro-MAGA network.
For the latest, Max Tani describes an internal battle about the use of "approved" terms for transgender topics, based on guidelines from the Trans Journalists Association stylebook. Tani describes a correspondent at the network declaring this is something that needs to be discarded. He then says a producer "angrily" responded to this with opposition to their opinion. What is telling is how Max names the correspondent who opposes the trans policy, but the producer remains anonymous.
The CBS correspondent who suggested in an internal note that the network "should refrain from adopting terminology" from the Trans Journalists Association stylebook here was Jan Crawford, I'm told pic.twitter.com/keGpLdXJcZ
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) January 5, 2026
Gilded Reframe - CNBC
Calling it a free expression action is a pathetic deflection.
There was a massive power outage recently in Germany, and it was the result of environmental activists who are mad about the "environmental crisis" and how artificial intelligence development is fueling this emergency. At CNBC, they chalked up this blackout to the result of a "protest."
In actuality, these activists attacked the power grid with an arson strike on a main electrical feed. But at CNBC, this was a case of exercising their free expression.
There must be a reason the outlet classifies a targeted attack on a power grid as a “protest”. pic.twitter.com/9iYbFx5vLu
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) January 8, 2026






