A new academic paper defending PBS as trustworthy, “An island of trust: public broadcasting in the United States,” is making the public media rounds, and the three academics who authored it for the Journal of Communication penned a related explainer op-ed for Current, a sort of trade publication for public media: “Study shows Americans trust PBS precisely because it’s publicly funded.” The left-leaning Harvard-affiliated Nieman Journalism Lab found the piece so vital that it quickly reprinted it. with the tag “This opinion piece was first published at Current, a news site that covers the world of public media intensely. It’s essential reading for this season of attacks.” The Nieman Lab version is illustrated with Lego versions of Sesame Street characters, which is an ironic acknowledgement that such purported jewels in public television’s sacred crown can fund themselves via product licensing without having to dip into the public treasury. After noting Trump’s executive order defunding PBS and NPR, the authors claimed that the public media congressional hearings in March “followed in the footsteps of a longer history of Republican criticism of U.S. public media’s alleged left-leaning bias and “woke” agenda, the latter often illustrated through reference to children’s programming like Sesame Street.” While anti-PBS voices have “ideologically inspired beliefs,” normal Americans trust PBS “immensely.” Contrary to these ideologically inspired beliefs, our empirical research, recently published in the Journal of Communication -- the flagship journal of the communication studies discipline -- finds that Americans from across the political spectrum do not subscribe to the notion of a biased PBS. More than this, we found that those who watch PBS trust it immensely for several complementary reasons. So “those who watch PBS” trust it. Doesn’t that sound redundant? Liberals love using polls -- and NOT content analysis -- to make the case that PBS is somehow fair and balanced.  The paper found three reasons to trust PBS, including the fact that “viewers say PBS is an excellent value for public dollars" and that "viewers trust PBS because of its content, notably news and children’s programming." Included in that last point was the finding that “PBS audiences evaluate its news as unbiased.” Wouldn't you like to meet these people? The third point involved “nostalgia” around PBS’s educational programming. “Many other respondents noted that Mister Rogers was a major reason they trust PBS, a phenomenon that we dubbed ‘the Mister Rogers Effect.’” (Nostalgia indeed: The last episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood aired in 2001.) But the trio’s patina of political objectivity began to chip, as a standard liberal argument surfaced. Given that the U.S. spends only $1.40 per capita on public media, compared to over $100 per capita in the U.K. and Norway and compared to, for example, the $849 billion spent on the military (almost $2,700 per capita), the high levels of trust in PBS from across the political spectrum suggests a tremendous value for very little money. The article concluded by calling PBS “a vital component of our democracy.” But Robby Soave at Reason magazine dispatched the findings quickly and neatly under the pungent headline "If Viewers Love PBS So Much, Let Them Pay for It." One issue: The study measured trust in PBS, not among all Americans, but among viewers of PBS. That was the sample: survey respondents who themselves watch PBS. This is hardly a surprising finding -- and is not whatsoever grounds for public funding. Regular viewers of Fox News, for instance, place very high levels of trust in Fox News. Does that mean all Americans do? Does it mean that Fox News should receive public funding? One doubts that the researchers would agree with such an argument….

We’ve got a new, fun interactive series called Worst Media Take of the Week, where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media take of the week.  Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).   The results of the Worst Media Take of the Week are in and the winner is… Keith Olbermann! The former MSNBC’s Countdown host won with 56 percent of the vote! Olbermann took first place for blaming the terrorist attack in Colorado on the President: “The blood of Boulder, Colorado, is on the hands of Donald Trump.” PBS host Christiane Amanpour finished in second place with 35 percent of the vote. Washington Post associate editor/PBS contributor Jonathan Capehart third with 9 percent.  The following is a montage of all the nominees:      WINNER (56 percent of the vote)   Keith Olbermann: “The Blood” of Terror Attack Is “On the Hands of Donald Trump”  “You just round up all the people who you think look like threats. That is remigration. That is ethnic cleansing. That is Donald Trump’s presidency. And that, because you no longer bother to look for people who are guilty or who might be planning heinous acts, you just look for their skin tone and their names, that is why the blood of Boulder, Colorado, is on the hands of Donald Trump.”— Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on his Countdown podcast, June 3.   SECOND PLACE (35 percent of the vote)   Christiane Amanpour: “I Literally Prepared to Go to America” As If It Was “North Korea” “When I went to Harvard to give this speech, and it was just a few days ago, last week. I must say I was afraid. I’m a foreigner, I don’t have a green card, I’m not an American citizen, I’m fairly prominent, and I literally prepared to go to America as if I was going to North Korea.”— PBS host Christiane Amanpour on her podcast Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files with Jamie Rubin, June 3.   THIRD PLACE (9 percent of the vote)   Jonathan Capehart: Shouldn’t We Be Worried About Trump’s “Mental Acuity?” “If President Trump is mentally anguished over the editing of a television [60 Minutes with Kamala Harris] interview, why shouldn’t I be concerned about his mental acuity in the office right now and all the crazy stuff he’s doing?” — Washington Post associate editor/PBS contributor Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC’s The Weekend, June 1.   Thanks again to all who participated!    Funded by James P. Jimirro

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.” Let’s call this what it is: delusion.Another ‘peaceful’ riotIf the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.And guess who funded it? You did.According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops. The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.RELATED: Why Trump had to do what Gavin Newsom refused to do Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThis is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.The left has lost itThis is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame. Want more from Glenn Beck? Get Glenn's FREE email newsletter with his latest insights, top stories, show prep, and more delivered to your inbox.

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed to the eponymous host of "The Joe Rogan Experience" in the episode published Friday that the bureau "just had a great breakthrough" regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a matter into which the FBI apparently has multiple ongoing investigations.The FBI director noted that this "breakthrough" specifically has to do with Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases whom the White House has accused of helping cover up the likely lab origins of COVID-19 and whose name Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and congressional investigators recently batted around when discussing lies about gain-of-function research.Patel noted that the FBI long sought the phones and devices Fauci used while he was serving in the first Trump administration during the pandemic, "and nobody had found it — till two days ago."While the director cautioned Rogan and his audience from jumping "to the conclusion [that] everything's in there," he said the bureau will "look at it, we'll pull it — we'll rip it, as we say."Patel intimated that where potentially incriminating material is concerned, "maybe it's deleted, maybe it's not, but at least we found it."When asked about the potential significance of the discovery of such devices and what investigators should look for, molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University, a leading critic of Fauci's flirtations with gain-of-function research, told Blaze News, "Fauci violated federal policies on gain-of-function and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research, committed conspiracy to defraud and perjury, used federal funds to commit crimes, and caused and covered up the cause of a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion."The World Health Organization claims that there have been cumulatively over 7 million reported COVID-19 deaths. However, the Economist's machine-learning model estimated that the total number of excess deaths globally is two to four times higher than the reported number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths, which could the put deaths far in excess of 20 million souls.RELATED: Lab wars: Inside one Democrat's 20-year crusade to save the world from Anthony Fauci — Part 3: 2020-2024 Blaze MediaEbright was among the prominent scientists who last year sought accountability over efforts to cure the origin narrative and demanded the retraction of "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2," published by Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020 — a consequential paper that Fauci not only allegedly commissioned and approved but used on multiple occasions to push the zoonotic origin theory."If files relevant to Fauci's roles in causing COVID and covering up the cause of COVID are recoverable from Fauci's phones or devices, those files could be of value in documenting the cause and the cover-up and in prosecuting persons culpable for the cause and the cover-up," Ebright told Blaze News. "Examples of relevant files would include files documenting Fauci's correspondence with scientists whose research caused COVID, correspondence with scientists, science administrators, and other federal agency officials who helped Fauci cover up the cause of COVID, and correspondence documenting Fauci's use of non-government email accounts and phone lines for government business."Blaze News reached out to the FBI for comment and clarification but did not receive a response before publication.'Clearly he was being deceptive.'Rogan asked Patel whether the pardons doled out in former President Joe Biden's name would spare Fauci from accountability over his misleading claim to Congress that "the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."There is, after all, a great deal of interest in Congress in holding Fauci accountable over his apparent lie to Congress in 2021 that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research.For instance, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Matt Kibbe, the host of BlazeTV's docuseries "The Coverup," that he had referred Fauci to the Department of Justice for prosecution three times over his statements."We've detailed his lies to Congress, which are a felony. I've sort of tragically and jokingly said, 'If he were a member of the Trump administration, he would have been arrested long ago.' Because I think we have two standards of justice," Paul told Kibbe. "He certainly seems to be protected." "Clearly he was being deceptive," Rogan said to Patel. "Are they pardoned for that as well? 'Cause it was like this crazy blanket pardon from 2014 forward, which I didn't even know you could do."On Jan. 20, Fauci received a "full and unconditional" pre-emptive pardon for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research."So I'm the investigator. So that would be a decision for the Department of Justice," said Patel. "We'll work it up and we'll say, 'This is what we found,' and then legal minds will have to come in and chop on, 'Does this pardon apply or not?'"While Fauci may presently enjoy an immunity shield from prosecution on account of his last-minute pardon, that pardon now faces a great deal of scrutiny.RELATED: Who was president these last four years? We deserve an answer Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump declared in March that the pardons were "VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT."DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin announced last month that he is reviewing the questionable "autopen" pardons issued in the final days of the Biden White House, noting that they "need some scrutiny." The House Oversight Committee is also investigating autopen use in the Biden White House.Even if Fauci's pardon holds up, information gleaned by the FBI from the alleged devices could possibly be used in legal actions taken at the state level.In February, over 16 state attorneys general launched an investigation into Fauci's role in the COVID-19 pandemic response, "demanding accountability for alleged mismanagement, misleading statements, and suppression of scientific debate."The state AGs underscored in their letter to Congress that the "pardon by former President Biden does not extend to preclude state-level investigations or legal proceedings."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Doom 3 is far from the best entry to the long-running FPS series, but a moody atmosphere, created by impressive lighting technology, still makes its Martian setting a compelling place to explore. It's also helped a group of modders called Team Future to use the game as the foundation for a sprawling expansion, Doom 3: Phobos, that adds a lengthy, unofficial story spin-off to the game well worth checking out. Now, as part of GOG's effort to streamline its users' ability to easily find and install mods, Phobos has been relaunched on the platform. Continue reading Doom 3 has a huge, unofficial story expansion, and it's just been relaunched MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games, Best horror games on PC, Best old games

Yes, enforce the law even at home-improvement stores.

The explicit purpose of the rioting and mayhem is to thwart the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Anthony Scaramucci Believes Fiery Pro-Illegal Alien Riots Will Propel Gavin Newsom to the White House

Anti-Trump Menswear Guy Openly Admits He's In the US Illegally and JD Vance's Response Is Comedy GOLD

Eric Swalwell So BADLY Wants to Be Trump That He's Stealing His Old TWEETS to Post About the LA Riots