If there is one image from Jan. 6th that will remain indelible with the day, it is the “QAnon Shaman.” Bare chested and wearing an animal headdress, horns and red-white-and-blue face paint, Jake Angeli Chansley is to the Capitol riot what Rosie the Riveter was to World War II. Howling and “chanting an unintelligible mantra” on the Senate floor, he is the embodiment of the unhinged rage that led to one of the most disgraceful attacks on our constitutional process in history. Continue reading “Did the “QAnon Shaman” Get Shafted on Sentencing? New Footage Raises Questions Over the Chansley Case”
Category: Media
Below is my column in the New York Post on the recently disclosed videotapes from Jan. 6th. The tapes include images never seen before by the public of that day. However, my interest was drawn primarily to the images of “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley being escorted through the Capitol. That footage raises serious questions about Chansley’s case in my view.
I am continuing to pursue the implications of the video today, but here is the column:
There is a deeply disturbing legislative proposal in Florida where Sen. Jason Brodeur of Lake Mary has called for bloggers to register with the state if they want to write about the state’s governor, lieutenant governor, cabinet members or legislative officials. It is a highly intrusive, dangerous, and presumptively unconstitutional effort. Yet, it is also important to note that this is just a proposal from a single legislator with little real chance of passage. What I find interesting is the historical underpinnings of such a law. The comparison is not favorable for Sen. Brodeur. Continue reading “Florida Legislator Proposes a State Registry for Bloggers”
Nina Jankowicz is back. After a public outcry forced the Biden Administration to kill its infamous Disinformation Government Board, Jankowicz became famous or infamous as the head of the board. She became an instant Internet sensation due to a musical number in which she sang “You can just call me the Mary Poppins of disinformation” in a TikTok parody of the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” After her brief stint in the Biden Administration, Jankowicz reportedly registered as a foreign agent with an British group to continue her disinformation work. She is now reinventing herself as the Mary Poppins of defamation and ostensibly seeking $100,000 to sue Fox News for defamation.
Continue reading “The Mary Poppins of Defamation? Nina Jankowicz Solicits Funds to Sue Fox News”
The Washington Post is now admitting that President Joe Biden’s college loan forgiveness plan is unconstitutional, but it insists that the “the court shouldn’t stop him.” The reason is standing and the Post is now apparently a standing hawk forced to accept a half trillion dollar give-away to maintain a narrow view of case or controversies under Article III. The Post previously ran opinion pieces saying that Biden clearly has this authority, but this is an opinion piece from the editors themselves on the subject.
Continue reading “Washington Post: Yes, the Biden Loan Forgiveness May Be Unconstitutional But…”
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been repeatedly criticized for transportation problems, including the holiday pile up at our ports that slowed delivery of goods in December. He was also criticized for his response to the recent airport shutdown. I have not joined in that criticism because I am not sure that he has direct responsibility for some of these problems. However, Buttigieg recently raised a legal claim to blame the Trump Administration for the train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. The claim was not only manifestly false but Buttigieg knew or should have known it was false. The implications are deeply disturbing. When confronted with a disaster, Buttigieg not only made a false claim but attempted to weaponize a tragedy against political opponents. That is a serious problem for a public figure and worthy of condemnation. Continue reading “Buttigieg’s Derailment: NTSB Exposes East Palestine Claim as “Misinformation””
Below is my column in the New York Post on the Wall Street Journal revealing that the Department of Energy has concluded that Covid-19 likely originated from a Chinese lab. According to the report, American intelligence has found evidence to support the long-dismissed “lab theory.” This has led to another media “my bad” moment where news outlets are shrugging that the theory may not be a conspiracy or racist theory after all. As usual, there is little attention to the experts who were shredded for raising the theory or the reporters who insisted that this was a debunked conspiracy theory.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “The Covid Lab Leak is a Scandal of Media and Government Censorship”
The Texas Supreme Court has handed down a major ruling in defense of free speech this week. The decision Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity v. Dickson by Justice Jane Bland rejected an effort by pro-choose groups to use defamation lawsuits against pro-life advocates. What was particularly chilling is that one appellate court agreed with the absurd argument that characterizing abortion as murder is an actionable basis for defamation as opposed to protected opinion. Continue reading “Texas Supreme Court Rejects Defamation Claims of Pro-Choice Group”
I have been writing about the controversial funding of the Global Disinformation Index by the congressionally-created and federally funded National Endowment for Democracy. I recently disclosed that, after my Hill column ran, NED contacted me to say that it was stopping any further funding of the GDI. However, major questions still remain on the NED’s funding of this highly flawed scoring system that targeted conservative and libertarian sites. This is an effort to deter advertisers from supporting these sites while listing highly liberal sites like Huffington Post as some of the most reliable sources. It appears that a Microsoft company is supporting this effort. According to the Washington Examiner, Microsoft’s Xandr is running a blacklist based on the discredited GDI listing. However, it includes additional sites popular with conservatives, libertarians, and independents beyond the ten most dangerous sites flagged by GDI. After Microsoft’s use of the blacklist was revealed, the company removed the listing. Continue reading “Microsoft Company Pushed Discredited GDI Blacklist Targeting Conservative and Libertarian Sites”
Last week, there was another bombshell story by the Washington Post on the purported evil that is Elon Musk. Quickly amplified by MSNBC and other media, it was another hit job on Musk and could be viewed as what many in the media love to call “disinformation.” Musk himself noted that the premise of the piece (that his tweets were artificially boosted during a recent period) was demonstrably false. Yet, the countervailing facts found little space in the long Post piece. None of that is particularly surprising. Musk became a hunted man when he sought to restore free speech protections to social media. The media regularly offers him little quarter or consideration. However, what was most striking was that the underlying controversy may have been Musk’s targeting of “bots” in his restructuring of Twitter. Continue reading “The War on Musk: Washington Post Slammed Over Twitter Hit Piece”
I have been writing about “the Global Disinformation Index” produced by a British group funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which itself is funded by the federal government. That includes a recent column in The Hill. The NED receives a massive $330 million budget through the U.S. State Department. The NED contacted me today after the column ran and informed me that it will no longer fund the GDI. Continue reading “The National Endowment for Democracy To Cut Off Further Support for the Global Disinformation Index”
I will be speaking today in Colorado on the “Rise and Fall of the American Fourth Estate.” The speech explores the legal and political history of the free press in our democracy — and its rapid decline in the age of advocacy journalism. This week, a poll was released that shows just how much ground has been lost by this generation of journalists. Gallup and the Knight Foundation found that 50% of Americans believe that the news media lies in order to promote an agenda. Only 25% of Americans reject that premise.
Continue reading “Gallup: Fifty Percent of Americans Believe Media Lies to Promote Agenda”
The White House has drawn the ire of the Twitter community by repeating President Joe Biden’s dubious claim that his administration had achieved a historical feat on budget reduction. The President often tells the public that he is responsible for the largest deficit reduction in history. It is a claim that has drawn widespread criticism in the past. Even The Washington Post balked and previously gave Biden “three Pinocchios” for the claim. The earlier spending and then sharp reduction were due to the pandemic, not Biden’s policies. Indeed, the reduction would have been far greater but for enormous spending by the Administration. Continue reading “White House Slammed for Debunked Claim on Record Deficit Reduction”
After my testimony before the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government yesterday, I found myself the subject of a segment on MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell where criticized me for a bizarre exchange with freshman Democrat Dan Goldman. O’Donnell did not actually show the full exchange, but the claim is patently false and I wanted to briefly respond.
Continue reading “A Response to Lawrence O’Donnell on the Weaponization Hearing”
The family of University of Idaho stabbing victim Kaylee Goncalves is appealing a gag order imposed upon them and others in the case against suspected killer, Bryan Kohberger. That appeal is supported by media organizations. As a long-standing critic of these gag orders on free speech grounds, it should come as no surprise that I believe that this order should be viewed as unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. However, courts have steadily increased the scope of these orders despite the curtailment of First Amendment rights. Continue reading “Victim’s Family in the University of Idaho Murders Appeals Gag Order”