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Politico Struggles With Illegal Voters and Censorship Lies

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Feb 18, 2026
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.


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Low-Octane Gaslighting – POLITICO

  • The facts are not as important as the hyped claims.

More hysteria over the Stephen Colbert flap continues, and Politico is here to explain for us how things are not. In its coverage of the alleged “censorship” of the James Talarico interview, Politico Playbook was content to just run with the claims of the candidate and the prevailing narrative that he was cancelled by the Trump administration, and in a separate report it ran with Colbert’s false claim that Trump censored the show:

The network’s decision to block the interview is one of the highest-profile instances of the Trump administration applying pressure to rein in media personalities it views as unfriendly. Colbert panned President Donald Trump as “a toddler with too much screen time.” Let’s just call this what it is,” Colbert said. “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV.”

Just to reiterate how far from the facts this rests, at issue was a Democrat interviewed during a Democratic primary and how it affects other Democrats getting equal airtime. Trump had no involvement in this decision, at all

Prose & Contradiction – CBS

  • Sounds like he really despises those people he praises.

On Tuesday, Colbert made more headlines with his grandiose opposition to the CBS Network statement explaining the moves of the Talarico interview. Operating with the freedom of a man who is already cancelled, Colbert slammed the executives and had some curious commentary about the legal team for the network.

So he is insulting the actions of the idiot network lawyers because they are contradicting the work on his content made by the excellent network lawyers.

Reporting on the Mirror – CNN

  • Pretty sure that is a comparison you do not want to make, Kaitlan.

Appearing with Colbert, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was discussing the controversy and made the expected sympathetic comments, but then veered into what she thought was a valid comparison.

She brought up talk radio and mentioned that Republicans would not want Democrats demanding equal time on conservative talk radio.

Kaitlan makes two errors here. What she is referring to is not Equal Time but the Fairness Doctrine, which was going to require broadcasters to give equal weight to policies in all broadcasts. It was repealed in the 1980s because it was too restrictive on editorial content. The Equal Time requirement is specific to candidates running for office.

The other error was that with her comparison, what she was essentially admitting is that Colbert’s entertainment program is on the same level as a partisan talk radio station.

Gilded Reframe – POLITICO

  • From “it never happens” to “what difference does a little make?” in little time.

It has been something close to a mantra in the press: “Illegals are not voting, and it is illegal for them to do so.”

The concept that people who disregard our border laws might be prone to disregarding voting laws is never a consideration. With talk of the SAVE Act taking place, one thing that has been emerging is more and more instances across the country of voting rolls seen with illegal immigrants listed, or those who actually voted.

Now, Politico responds and tips its hand in the process, stipulating that, okay, sure, some illegals are found to have voted, but not at an appreciable level. So we have to assume the SAVE Act is not at all needed, according to those simping for the Democratic Party.

Pathological Media Amnesia – NEWS NATION

  • Simping for AOC was just the first problem…

Chris Cuomo was clearly leaping for the keyboard before thinking things through. He saw Megyn Kelly slamming Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her disaster of a conference in Germany and felt the need to rush in and white knight, for some reason.

In his post, trying to insult Kelly for being fired by NBC News, Chris forgets two details:
He was summarily fired from CNN, and when that was playing out, he hired the very same lawyer to negotiate his settlement that Megyn used with her NBC departure.