Don’t look now, but FCC chairman Brendan Carr and Jim Acosta agree on something. Donald Trump is “winning” his effort to reshape the media landscape in his second term. Appearing on the “Power Lines” podcast with his fellow ardent leftists Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino, Acosta glumly proclaimed “I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that Donald Trump is winning in his, you know, quest to reshape the media in this country that he's cracked the code on how to hurt the press in the U.S.” Acosta recently testified at a Democrat pseudo-hearing before Sen. Adam Schiff, warning about how Larry and David Ellison had taken over CBS and are now planning to acquire CNN. He accused Trump of committing “an assault on our freedom of speech….taking us down the road of Putin and China to state-controlled media.” Darcy and Acosta both constantly paint the Ellisons as creating “MAGA-coded” media. It’s always bizarre to hear Jim Acosta warning of “partisan hacks” in TV news, and “propaganda networks,” like CNN and Acosta weren’t sounding like that for Barack Obama or against Donald Trump. Acosta told the podcasters “we don't need to have propaganda networks in the US. I mean, and by the way, there's already a propaganda network over at Fox. We don't, we don't need more of them.” On the 'Power Lines' podcast with Farcy Darcy, Jim Acosta claims the Ellisons could be creating a 'consolidated media giant' with great powers. They really think CBS is going to be a new Fox News, and CNN will follow. It doesn't seem to matter what CBS actually sounds like right… pic.twitter.com/BGAWVcyXGo — Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) April 3, 2026   Despite Acosta’s blathering about Trump’s “campaign to basically destroy the free press in the United States,” there is no shortage of negative coverage of Donald Trump across the elitist media landscape. Anyone watching CBS right now isn’t noticing much difference between them and ABC and NBC. The Big Three evening newscasts are still uber-negative about Trump, most recently about the war in Iran. In a few weeks, they’ll be hating something else he does. If you go back to Acosta’s CNN war on Trump in the first term, he constantly claimed Trump was endangering the lives of reporters by calling them “Fake News” and the “Enemy of the People.” Meanwhile, it couldn’t be imagined that the media might inspire attempts on Trump’s life by constantly suggesting he was a wannabe dictator, basically an American Hitler. Acosta and Team Darcy pretend that CBS, CNN, and The Washington Post are now under Trump’s thumb. Acosta insisted “the people” have figured this out, and “that's why a lot of people are turning away from the traditional broadcast networks. They're turning away from places like The Washington Post because they're seeing these oligarchs take over these news organizations and, you know, turn them into House organs for the Trump administration.” If Acosta believes his own rhetoric, it’s only because he’s not actually reading or watching the journalistic output. It’s more likely that he’s just trying to goad them into being as hyper-critical as he is. It’s not hard to accuse a media outlet of “going soft” when they label Trump a fascist a little less often, or commit so-called atrocities like granting half a minute to the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riot. It’s apparently appalling to conduct an interview with the president where he gets to speak for two sentences without being aggressively Accosted, CNN-style. This is the same attack dog who announced on CNN in 2009 that Obama’s first inaugural speech “may be more than the speech of his lifetime. Historians and speechwriters say it could be one for the ages.” In 2013 during the Obama inauguration parade he gushed that “I feel like I should pinch myself right now.” The partisan hack pretends he was just as tough on Obama. He was nothing of the sort. 

The Elitist Media’s evening newscasts have shown that they have a hard time reporting on counteragenda items that expose blue states to accusations of incompetence or malfeasance. News related to public assistance fraud is especially rare among the nightlies, as is demonstrated by the latest news out of California. Watch as the CBS Evening News is the sole evening newscast to report on the massive early morning raid carried out by the FBI in Covina, California:  WATCH: CBS Evening News is the only network evening newscast to report on the early morning FBI raid in California, after the discovery of massive hospice fraud. TONY DOKOUPIL: CBS News is first to report the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of… pic.twitter.com/hSAWuv14Zx — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 3, 2026 CBS EVENING NEWS 4/2/25 6:42 PM TONY DOKOUPIL: CBS News is first to report the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of ripping off Medicare for nearly $7.5 million through a series of fraudulent hospice claims. Over 700 hospices in Los Angeles County alone have red flags for fraud, according to our investigative team. In this particular case, the flags included a five year survival rate of 97%, high for what is supposed to be end of life care. The FBI says additional arrests are expected. To their credit, CBS has been working on the fraud story for quite some time. But this report is quite skinny for something that their peers aren’t even going to bother to carry. Additional details, per the California Post: The home of a husband and wife who own a Southern California hospice accused of committing $7 million in fraud was raided by FBI agents in conjunction with Health and Human Services early Thursday morning. The raid is one of several that took place as part of a massive federal effort to address widespread fraud in the state in coordination with Vice President JD Vance’s Fraud Taskforce — and the California Post was there. In dramatic fashion, the couple, Amelou Gill and Gladwin Gill, who operate St. Francis Palliative Care in Anaheim, were arrested at their home by an FBI SWAT team as authorities sawed through the metal front gates of their property and called with loudspeakers for them to come out. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was on the scene as well and said the couple created a hospice in their daughter’s name and bilked millions of dollars from taxpayers. You would think that having the head of CMS present at the raid might be an indicator of newsworthiness and seriousness. But no. And, of course, the CBS item made no mention of the raid’s relation to the anti-fraud effort spearheaded by Vice President JD Vance.  All of this notwithstanding, CBS’s 32 seconds on the raid are 32 seconds more than ABC and NBC combined. The Elitist Media’s insistence on pretending that government assistance fraud doesn’t exist is but one of many reasons why the American People have lost trust in the media.  

On "International Fact Checking Day," we discuss how PolitiFact can't find any Democrats saying false things with Matthew Hoy, author of the new book Fact-Checking Frauds: How Fact-Checkers Distract, Deceive, and Distort Our Politics. What tactics do they use? There's obvious selection bias -- in targets, in fact claims, and in expert testimony. Managing Editor Curtis Houck joined the show to discuss how "fact checkers" are journalists and it shouldn't be seen as hostile to journalism or facts to criticize them and their tactics. Hoy worked for 15 years as a newspaper journalist, so he knows how the process works. What we've seen is liberal journalists using "fact checking" as another way of undermining conservatives and Republicans in their appeal to voters.  When PolitiFact couldn't find a single statement made by the Democrats anywhere that they would feel need to be described as "Mostly False" or in stronger terms, it suggests favoritism. It's one thing to believe that Donald Trump is uniquely troubling in his untruths and exaggerations. It's another to believe it's disreputable "false balance" to call out any falsehoods among Trump's opponents.  We've seen signs of decline among the "fact checkers." The Washington Post didn't replace their fact chieftain Glenn Kessler when he took a buyout. But their bias was glaringly obvious when Kessler compiled a database of more than 30,000 "false or misleading" statements from Trump, and then canceled any presidential database when Biden was elected.  CNN's Daniel Dale makes no attempt to avoid the impression that he's only been hired to fact-check Trump, and pretty much nothing else. That's certainly true when he appears on television for CNN. Snopes.com has a problem obsessing over satire, as if making jokes is the worst kind of misinformation.  Overall, these "fact checkers" have remarkable blind spots -- "Jim Crow 2.0" is considered fair comment about the Republicans. Calling Trump a "fascist" or a "dictator" is acceptable discourse, but if you call a Democrat a "socialist," that can be tagged as "Pants On Fire." Republicans can never claim the Democrats support abortion up until birth -- no restrictions are desirable -- but instead of proving their claim false (it's not), they claim that late-term abortions are "rare," as if that's a factual argument.  Enjoy the show below, or wherever you consumer your podcasts. 

It's the Great Fear that has been haunting California Democrats, and especially Politico, since they noticed the possibility last December that because of the Democrats splitting the votes among each other in the open gubernatorial primary in June. The two top candidates could end up being Republicans, thus locking Democrats out of the November general election. The angst over this possibility has only increased dramatically since then, with the latest poll results sending poor Politico over the edge to the extent they have completely dropped even the bare pretense of objectivity as they MindMeld with the Democrats in deep deep concern as you see with senior politics reporter Jeremy B. White furiously rubbing the worry beads on Wednesday in "Democrats risk a historic upset in California." White might have written his panic piece on April Fool's Day and the joke appears to be on the Democrats as illustrated by the subtitle: "How the party in America's bluest state could lock itself out of the governor’s race." The  nightmare scenario (for Democrats and You-Know-Who) was laid out by White: In a typical election, Democrats would be cruising. But this is not a typical year. After heavyweights like Sen. Alex Padilla and former Vice President Kamala Harris passed on the race to succeed Gavin Newsom, no Democrat has broken away from the scrum. Now, some polls show Republicans are in position to capture the top two spots — including a survey circulated by state party Chair Rusty Hicks, whose plea for lower-tier Democrats to drop out has been met with backlash and accusations of racism. “It’s completely dysfunctional,” said a former legislative leader granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. “It’s the weirdest combination.” The cause for the latest panic attack was most likely the most recent Evitarus poll, SPONSORED BY DEMOCRATS, that revealed these hilarious results as reported in the March 25 Palm Springs Desert Sun, "New California poll shows Hilton, Bianco leading as Democrats split." The EVITARUS poll released Tuesday, March 24, shows conservative commentator Steve Hilton leading with 16% of likely voters, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco just behind with 14%. Three Democratic candidates — Congressman Eric Swalwell, Congresswoman Katie Porter, and climate advocate Tom Steyer — trail behind, each capturing 10% of likely voters. The other five democratic candidates each hold 3% or less of likely voters. Yes, absolutely the worst of all worlds as far as both Democrats and Politico are concerned. And yet with the three top Democrats tied at exactly 10 points each behind the Republicans the political agony is made even funnier. White does his bit for damage control by hyping the candidacy of Mr. Fang Fang, aka Eric Swalwell, perhaps with the intent to help him break away from the rest of the Democrat pack and especially ahead of at least one of the Republican candidates now leading in the polls: In recent weeks, much of the political establishment has backed Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has picked up endorsements from Sen. Adam Schiff and two of California’s most prominent labor groups. A pro-Swalwell super PAC has piled up millions of dollars from medical interests and Uber, and a well-funded anti-Steyer effort launched late last month. Finally, Jeremy White entertains us with some amusing "Woe Is Us" shtick: California Democrats say they’ll clean up this mess. But in a governor’s race that has all the makings of a debacle, they’re digging themselves deeper. With a sprawling field threatening to split the vote and hand the governorship to a Republican, a late-hour effort failed to persuade longshot contenders to drop out. A preeminent labor group split its coveted endorsement four ways, elevating no one. And in the most recent upheaval, a televised debate was hastily canceled after an uproar from within the party that leaving out low-polling candidates of color would produce an all-white stage. ...“We know there’s this risk ahead — a 15 percent chance of calamity. It’s not a 15 percent chance of stubbing your toe, it’s a 15 percent chance of losing the governorship, losing the down-ballot races,” said Paul Mitchell, a leading Democratic data strategist in the state. Losing the governorship would rank among the biggest upsets in modern political history. For Democrats, who have held a monopoly on statewide office for a generation and outnumber Republicans two to one, it wouldn’t just mean ceding California’s role as a national leader in progressive policymaking. The lack of a top-of-the-ticket standard bearer could also suppress turnout and cost the party House seats, squandering Democrats’ victory last year in a hard-fought gerrymandering campaign. Exit Question: Will there be Californians in June who will vote for one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates just for the comedic entertainment value of watching a Conniption Fit For The Ages by the Democrats and Politico?

Eight federal arrests were made in Los Angeles, California pertaining to $50 million of national health care fraud – including one case involving immigration law violations, the U.S. Justice Department reported Thursday. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California details the law enforcement sweep, which included the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in an announcement: “In coordination with the Vice President’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, eight defendants, including three nurses, a chiropractor, and a psychologist, have been arrested on federal charges that they schemed to defraud the nation’s health care system out of more than $50 million – including by running sham hospice care facilities that bilked Medicare by using people without terminal illnesses as beneficiaries.” Alleged crimes committed by those charged include: Using their own or their accomplices’ companies to submit millions of dollars of fraudulent hospice claims to Medicare. Billing Medicare for hospice services for beneficiaries who were not terminally ill. Scheming to defraud Medicare by paying illegal kickbacks for the referral of patients who were not dying to hospices. Operating fraudulent hospice care facilities – in one case, while the suspect was free on bond awaiting a hospice fraud trial. Committing wire fraud. Submitting false claims to Medicare for physician hospice services that were not provided to patients. Forging the signature of a physician on Medicare enrollment forms. Using a co-conspirator’s name and ID number to file fraudulent claims, in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. Some of the hospices had non-death discharge rates that were nearly five times higher than the national average, suggesting that many of those taken into care were not actually terminally-ill, as claimed. Additionally, money that was paid to provide patient care was actually used for personal expenses such as mortgage payments, car payments, international flights, restaurants, and personal bills. In the case of immigration health care fraud, Young Joo Ko, 59, of East Hollywood and a lawful permanent resident from South Korea, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging her with fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents. According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Ko engaged in a medical fraud scheme exploiting the green card application process by creating fraudulent immigration documents. Civil surgeons designated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and operating in the Los Angeles area did not examine green card applicants as required by law. Instead, Ko – for a fee – fraudulently prepared the required forms by presenting herself as a nurse or doctor and indicating false compliance with medical examination requirements necessary for immigration applicants to register permanent residence or adjust their immigration status, according to allegations. Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), IRS Criminal Investigation, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are investigating this matter.