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Democratic Custodial Services – PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
Funny how local officials never get a mention with a local catastrophe.
Think back to the Los Angeles wildfires from a year ago. Everything from prevention efforts, defunding of fire departments, and the lack of water availability all pointed to internal political incompetence. Then there is the lingering issue of scant relief efforts and rebuilding taking place, despite the massive amounts of relief funds and donations that flooded into the area.
Well, PBS did a lengthy feature on the first anniversary of that disaster, and the glaring detail seen was that while mentioning the lax progress made with rebuilding, there was no mention of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass, nor even the word “Democrats,” who essentially run the city and state.
It has been a year since a series of wildfires set parts of Los Angeles ablaze. In the hardest hit areas, residents are still grappling with how to rebuild their homes and communities. https://t.co/Y8OzNpeLT4
— PBS News (@NewsHour) January 8, 2026
Low-Octane Gaslighting – PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
Do we need to point out when the fires in L.A. broke out?!
Also on PBS, they brought out MS NOW correspondent Jacob Soboroff (who placed very high on our annual "Townhall 50" list of the worst in 2025), who has a new book about the Los Angeles wildfires. Well…about how Donald Trump and Elon Musk were the villains when it comes to the fires.
Mr. Soboroff is an alleged journalist, which makes us feel quite odd in needing to point out not just that there are many other officials in California with culpability regarding this catastrophe, but more so that we have to stipulate for the reporter/author that the devastation in Southern California took place BEFORE Trump was even in office.
PBS = MS NOW. On Friday's @NewsHour, they promoted Jacob Soboroff's new book on the L.A. wildfires, which he says is all about how Donald Trump & Elon Musk were
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 12, 2026
"pouring rhetorical fuel on the very literal flames of the fire."
News by and for Democrats. pic.twitter.com/Uy3M7VUt9J
Reporting on the Mirror – PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
After this past week, this move is more than timely.
Word came out from PBS that, due to cost-cutting at the network due to the defunding of public broadcasters, this weekend served as the final broadcast for PBS News Weekend. The show is being taken off the air.
Due to federal budget cuts, PBS News had to make the difficult decision to rework our staffing and programming.
— PBS News (@NewsHour) January 9, 2026
This Sunday, our PBS News Weekend team will sign off the air. pic.twitter.com/pAREL6iUBV
Reporting on the Mirror – PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
A Steel City paper steals away…
Word was announced that the major paper in Pittsburgh will be shuttering for good. The paper has been in operation for nearly two and a half centuries, but the owners have incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over the past two decades.
Post-Gazette to publish final edition and cease operations on May 3 https://t.co/weaoHFuogH
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) January 8, 2026
Deadline Gambit – MOTHER JONES
"This article is all about you – any last-second words to add?"
As we mentioned on the recent "Lie-Able Sources" podcast, we are already seeing a trend this year of the press shooting the messenger. First, Nick Shirley was on the receiving end of media scorn; now, the local news outlet Alpha News is the latest, a collateral player in the shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
This new round is the result of the release of video from the cellphone of the ICE agent involved in the Minneapolis shooting. After countless reports stating the agent was not, in fact, struck by Ms. Good's SUV, the new video captured the moment of impact, destroying the narratives. Upon seeing this video, Mother Jones snapped into action – and reported on the supposedly disqualifying details of the Minnesota outlet. This report states that the outlet was a supporter of Derek Chauvin, and it has a connection with a controversial police authority in the area.
NONE of which has anything whatsoever to do with the content of the video. After building up the hit piece, writer Katie Herchenroeder, as a last-minute detail, dashed off a quick perfunctory email, just before going to press.
JUST IN: It’s not what’s actually in the video that is the news, it’s hit pieces on @AlphaNews that seem to be more important at the moment.🤦🏼♀️
— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) January 10, 2026
These people are absolutely pathetic. @CNN @MotherJones pic.twitter.com/8KVZo622I2
Pounce of Prevention – MOTHER JONES
Seriously with this?!
Also, as part of the lame effort to frame this new video evidence as invalid, those damned people on the Right have noticed it exists!
Conservative commentators have seized on the 47-second clip to argue that it exculpates Ross and shows Good driving towards him.
As the media outrage over this incident starts to ebb, this is the reason why.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) January 9, 2026
Most of the narratives spun about this shooting have now been exposed as merit-free.
This is why you wait for facts to arrive before making bold pronouncements.https://t.co/5gfMBmB9s2
Gilded Reframe – PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
This is sounding like a case of "Schrodinger's Contact."
Just because they had not entirely destroyed credibility to this point, the gang at PBS also felt the need to weigh in on this new video that was released. In perhaps the most vivid example of the press unable to come to terms with the unassailable facts of this shooting, we get told that in this video, the ICE agent was somehow driven back by – some sort of impact, we presume – but that he also was not hit in the process.
This is what desperation looks like.
Hmm -- @PBS claims the ICE agent in Minneapolis appears to have been "knocked backward but not hit" by Good's vehicle, without explaining how exactly a person can be knocked backward by a car without also being hit. pic.twitter.com/y2zl1DfHG6
— Elle Reynolds Purnell (@_ellepurnell) January 9, 2026
