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Low Octane Gas Lighting – WASHINGTON POST
- "How did this evade the press?!", asked the reporter.
In one of the early contenders for Headline of the Year, the Washington Post decided to weigh in on the Eric Swalwell fallout. It would have been better had they not.
The paper came out with a piece that was actually as asinine as it gets. Reporter Liz Goodwin sounds mystified by how it was that a politician dogged with rumors of unacceptable behavior for years had been able to rise up the ranks in politics.
That is, a journalist is curious how no reporting on the man had properly taken place, as she writes from the industry charged with holding the powerful accountable.
Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D) fall left many asking how someone who was dogged by persistent rumors of inappropriate behavior toward women could have risen so high and so fast in a party that says it supports women’s rights. https://t.co/kJ6AODWGef
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 15, 2026
Reporting On The Mirror – AXIOS
Bethany? What is the first rule of holes???
On Monday, we featured how former Axios scribe Bethany Allen Ebrahimian was describing how she had known about Swalwell’s antics, but she could not report on them at the time. Not part of her beat, you see. She said, AFTER showing that she had reported on his involvement with the female Chinese spy, which is…uh, yeah…the exact same thing!
Well, Beth is still at it, as she continues to try extracting herself from the admission that she had not done her job. She attempts to deflect to other outlets that also did not do her job, but she is never able to address her biggest problem.
She said she had passed along the information about Swalwell to others at her outlet, and yet Axios never managed to report on the problems with the politician.
So-called "mainstream media" are the ONLY outlets that have published major investigations into Swalwell.
— Bethany 貝書穎 (@BethanyAllenEbr) April 16, 2026
The current right-wing narrative — that mainstream media protected Swalwell because he is a Democrat — is exactly the opposite question that they should be asking.
Reporting On The Mirror – THE INDEPENDENTS
First question: Was he even invited?!
It is presented as news that Don Lemon has announced he will not be attending this year’s Nerd Prom, the White House Correspondents Association's annual awards dinner.
He is doing so because President Trump will be in attendance. We have yet to actually pin down who it might be that will be affected by this development. Further, we have yet to ascertain if anybody actually cares about his absence.
We are relatively certain he will be at the Substack gala being held on the same weekend, where he is likely to be lionized by that collection of journalism castoffs.
Why Don Lemon is skipping the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) April 15, 2026
“I’m not interested in dressing up in a tuxedo, sipping champagne, and pretending everything is normal with a president and a regime that spends every day attacking, undermining, and trying to discredit journalists…
Reporting On The Mirror – WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS ASSOCIATION
Looks like trashing the administration was a prerequisite.
Ahead of the Nerd Prom event, held on Saturday, April 25, the WHCA has released its list of winners for this year’s banquet. Pretty much across the board, the names are those who have shown a level of hostility towards President Trump, including the Picture of the Year, for when a person passed out in the Oval Office, and Trump is shown placidly standing away from the melee.
Congratulations to @kaitlancollins, winner of the WHCA’s Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure – Broadcast
— WHCA (@whca) April 13, 2026
For more, https://t.co/GdRJTERKUH
Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS
Dog piling without a bone, as it were.
There was some comedy, as usual, when the press attempted to lecture loudly on theistic matters. Pete Hegseth gave a presser where he condemned the media coverage of the Iranian conflict. He noted the willingness of the press to just write negatively, and within hours, they rushed out hit pieces on the Secretary of War.
The story claimed that he was quoting a Bible verse during a Pentagon religious service, but it was instead a quote by Samuel L. Jackson from the movie “Pulp Fiction”. Small problem. No wait – make that, huge problem.
Hegseth was not quoting the Bible; he was reading a prayer given to him by soldiers in the field, who read this out before missions. It was, in fact, based both on a passage from the book of Ezekiel, and yes, the Sam Jackson scene in the film.
This is a detail that would have been discovered with a minute or two of research.
The Press Proves Secretary Hegseth Right About Being ‘Pharisees’ With a Failure of Biblical Proportionshttps://t.co/RKPusWGMy0
— RedState (@RedState) April 16, 2026
News Avoidance Syndrome – THE INDEPENDENTS
Say Chuckles, have you ever peered into his record?
Speaking of Hegseth, none other than Chuck Todd came out with more criticism of the man, and it is of the lowest order.
Chuck tries to say that the Secretary of War is a poser in his role of leading the armed forces. This would be the man with a two-decade military record of service, deployed on multiple war fields, and twice awarded the Bronze Star.
But surrrrre…Poser.
Poor Pete Hegseth, he’s clearly got the worst case of poser complex DC’s ever seen and that’s saying something.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) April 16, 2026
