Last Friday YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video alleging mass fraud at children's daycare centers in Minnesota which includes some in the Somali community. The video went viral and has resulted in a federal investigation, led by DHS and ICE. This comes on the heels of what is believed to be $9 billion of social services fraud over many years in the same community of Minnesota. Many in the liberal media have had a hard time reporting on that story properly, and the same seems to be happening with the latest scandal. Speaking on Fox News's Big Weekend Show, Shirley predicted that other journalists might not want to handle the story out of fear of being labeled "Islamophobic" or "racist." One way to remedy that is to attack the messenger and it looks like that's what  Telemundo attempted to do by labeling Shirley a "far-right YouTuber". And during several shows on Tuesday, CNN was even worse. Phil Mattingly, guest-hosting on CNN's Inside Politics started the story this way: MATTINGLY: Right now, Republican lawmakers are asking Minnesota's Democratic Governor, Tim Walz, to resign after renewed focus on a state fraud investigation. A viral YouTube video by a creator who shared anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim videos in the past put a major national spotlight on the investigation. The video claims Somali run child care centers in Minnesota are committing widespread fraud and provides limited evidence to support the allegations. This kind of phrasing suggests that immigrants and Muslims should never be negatively covered, no matter what the actual facts are. This betrays wokeness, the kind that made all of this fraud possible in the first place. Mattingly gave no further information on the alleged racist videos. He then addressed Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild in Minnesota "And, Whitney, what are you hearing from officials there?"  And she then added to the smear.  "Well, there's one agency saying basically today that they are concerned about some of the tactics that the video shows, but at the same time, they take all allegations of fraud seriously." Which agency had concern? What was their concern? We will never know. She did admit, "This has been a problem in Minnesota for many, many years. You can look it up yourself. There are stories about, you know, alleged fraud at daycares stretching as far back as 2015. There were a round of indictments back then. Fraud continues to simply plague the Minneapolis area and Minnesota at large." Later on CNN News Central, host Brianna Keilar asked correspondent Hadas Gold to tell the audience who Nick Shirley is. And she did. HADAS GOLD: Nick Shirley he's in his early 20s. He started posting on YouTube as a teenager, actually, with kind of the shock videos as a 16-year-old. One of his first videos was about him flying to New York without parental consent. For the next couple of years, there was a lot of these sort of just kind of pranking fun content videos.. In 2021, he quit to go as part of a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Then, in 2023, he returned. And that's when you see his current style of content. It's much more political... He went to the border a lot to talk to who he says were illegal immigrants. He's been to Rio, Brazil. He's been into the CECOT Prison (El Salvador)  And as a result, he became sort of well known in the MAGA universe. And in fact, in October, he was invited to the White  House to speak alongside several other independent content creators, independent journalists, to speak with President Donald Trump. She had her chance to tell the audience all about Shirley, and there was not one mention of any racist videos, period. But that didn't stop Jim Sciutto while he was guest-hosting The Arena. SCIUTTO: All of this surge of law enforcement resources coming after this viral video created by MAGA YouTuber Nick Shirley.. Shirley visits businesses connected to Minneapolis's Somali immigrant community, businesses that he alleges are abusing or stealing taxpayer dollars. The video, however, contains little evidence to back up those claims, and Shirley has previously created and shared anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim videos. That context is important. Simply irresponsible and outrageous! Sciutto then hands off to Wild in Minnesota, who once again cites no examples of these alleged racist videos. Sciutto ends the segment with, "And we should note that there are some 100,000 residents of Somali descent in Minnesota. No one is alleging, there is no evidence, that a large number of that community is involved in fraud." In other words, CNN loves tossing the phrase "no evidence" to try and undercut stories they don't like. Some of the worst reporting I've seen in a long time. Thank you CNN.

The liberal ladies of The View love to claim that since they’re an ABC News program that they have to live up to ABC News’s journalistic standards. If that was true, it meant the network’s standards didn’t amount to much. As we’ll explore in this 2025 worst of The View recap, they had no problem with pushing baseless and heinous conspiracy theories about President Trump and his supporters. Whether it was claims of stealing the 2024 presidential election, Trump planning to implement martial law, Trump threatening to kill the families GOP lawmakers, or more claims of stealing elections, The View was not afraid to poison America’s body politic with harmful nonsense. NewsBusters presents The View-Anon conspiracy theory web. Whoopi: ‘Any One of Us Could Find Ourselves Being Deported’ By Trump Despite that the fact that the cast was made up of five natural born American citizens and one legally naturalized citizen, moderator Whoopi Goldberg claimed that they all could be deported at any moment: GOLDBERG: And – You just got to keep your eyes open, y'all, because if they can just come up and take somebody because they've made a decision that you're supposed to be that person, any one of us could find ourselves being deported to some country we've never been. ANA NAVARRO: Don't give him any ideas, girl.     Looney Behar Floats Conspiracy Trump Crashing Stocks for ‘Martial Law’ Co-host Joy Behar was the show’s most prolific conspiracy theory spinner. In April, she claimed that Trump was planning to crash the stock market so he could help his wealth friends get good deals on stocks. But things took an even darker turn when she claimed the was to take dictatorial control of the country through martial law: BEHAR: If he tanks the entire- what do you call it- HOSTIN: Um- Economy? Stock market?. BEHAR: The stock market. Then all his billionaire friends can swoop in and buy everything low. (...) BEHAR: And how broke will people get? and how many jobs will be lost? And then he can- he can say, ‘Well, there's too much chaos, and now we're going to have martial law in this country,” and he becomes a dictator. I mean- I don't know- that may be out- out of the- bounds- GOLDBERG: Anything is possible. BEHAR: -But it's possible.     Sunny Hostin Insists Trump 'Certainly' Is 'Guilty of Insider Trading' Instead of seeing the 90-day pause on tariffs for most of the world and the rallying stock market as a sign of trade negotiations going well, ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin used her platform on the show to accuse President Trump of “certainly” being “guilty of insider trading.” Her evidence? A social media post vaguely touting the market. She also whined that nothing was going to happen to him because the conspiracy also included federal investigative agencies (not because no crime was committed): HOSTIN: And that's really a whistle to those billionaires that can -- or people that have money that can buy low and then the stock market, prices go up. That's generally called insider trading and that would ordinarily trigger an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. We know now that that's not probably going to happen because all of these government agencies have been, you know, destroyed and dismantled. But someone with knowledge of an economic policy change, that would cause the markets to shoot back up right before posting about how great a time it is to buy right before the policy change happened, would certainly be guilty of insider trading, in my view. ABC News Host Suggests Trump RIGGED 2024 Presidential Election The View previously made a big deal about refusing to have election deniers on the show. But what happens when the co-hosts were election deniers? May 1 was the first time the cast floated the idea that Trump had somehow rigged the 2024 presidential election. According to Goldberg, Trump might have tipped his hand by saying investors knew Trump was going to get elected again: GOLDBERG: I want to remind people that he took credit for Biden’s economy – BOOMING economy, claiming investors knew he was going to win. I think he should stop saying that because you’re going to make somebody investigate how investigators would know you were going to win. I'm just putting that out there. You know.     ABC News: Musk Killed 300,000 Kids, Knows How Trump Stole Election A little over month later, The View made their second assertion that Trump stole the 2024 presidential election. This time however, they claimed billionaire Elon Musk was involved and for good measure they added that he killed 300,000 kids. Hostin was the one behind the claim about Musk killing that slew of children: “[H]is cutbacks on medical research cost the lives – for the foreign aid, cost 300,000 lives mostly children. That's the damage that Elon Musk did.” It was Goldberg who floated the idea that Musk had the dirt on how Trump won: GOLDBERG: And then that if one was going to think, you know, ‘ooh, maybe this happened.’ You know, Elon knows the 411 on everything. HOSTIN: Yeah, he got all that information. GOLDBERG: He knows how all this came down. ‘God Knows What Else He May Have Done’: ABC Suggests Musk Stole 2024 Presidential Election The third time they suggested something untoward was the reason Trump was president came in July (third month in a row). This time, it was Ana Navarro lashing at Musk, claiming he might have done something to rig the election and created a “problem” for America: NAVARRO: But I think Elon Musk needs to look at what he did in this past election. SUNNY HOSTIN: Yes. NAVARRO: We have a broken system right now because there is no oversight. We have a broken system because there is a President who doesn't believe in the Constitution and who defies judicial orders. And Elon Musk and his 300-plus-million dollars, and God knows what else he may have done that we don't know of, own the problem that he created.     The View Finds It Suspicious Army, Trump Share a Birthday; Bash Troops June 14 is the birthday of the U.S. Army. It’s also Trump’s birthday. Both are easily researchable facts and has been true for 79 years (Trump’s age), but The View found it suspicious as if it wasn’t true. Of course, it was Behar who couldn’t wrap her mind around how calendars worked as she speculated that there was something nefarious behind the Army’s birthday parade in Washington, D.C.: BEHAR: Tanks will be rolling through the nation's capital along with 7,000 marching soldiers to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army. There will also be No Kings demonstrations around the country to protest Trump, and it happens to be his 79th birthday! What a coincidence!   Joy Behar finds it suspicious that Trump shares a birthday with the U.S. Army: "Tanks will be rolling through the nation's capital along with7,000 marching soldiers to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army...and it happens to be his 79th birthday, what a… pic.twitter.com/bd9qEDj0T9 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 13, 2025   ‘Starving Kids’: ABC News Accuses Trump of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ By mid July, The View cast was in full blown hysterics over Trump’s presidency. They lashed out at the “bastards” in the administration and accused Trump of taking pleasure in the "cruelty" of cutting funds to “starving children.” Without evidence, the co-hosts of the ABC News program claimed Trump had committed “crimes against humanity” which they put on the same level as just being “mean”: GOLDBERG: Now, you should ask yourself why? Was cruelty the point? Was Elon just trying to, you know, skinny up the government or were they just being bastards? BEHAR: They’re just being mean. They’re mean. (...) HOSTIN: It feels criminal. This feels criminal. It’s like a crime against humanity. GOLDBERG: It’s criminal. It’s mean. The View Downplays Somali Welfare Fraud as Just 'Smoke and Mirrors’ Claiming something false was fact is one thing, but claiming something that’s a proven fact in a court of law was false is another. That was the case in early December when they downplayed the massive Somali welfare fraud scheme to be something invented by Trump. While leading into the discussion during their Hot Topics segment, Goldberg suggested that the case was all “smoke and mirror” and Behar said it was just a distraction: GOLDBERG: Will trying to demonize immigrants till work for him or his base? Are they more concerned about other issues, right now? Is this going to continue? Or is this smoke and mirrors? JOY BEHAR: It seems like every time his numbers drop or he perceives his popularity is dropping no matter how much tush kissing the cabinet does on him – it's really disgusting to watch them kiss his butt, but anyway – every time that happens, he pulls out a race card. Last time it was the Haitians who were eating the pets. And now it's the Somalis in Minnesota…   Downplaying the massive Somali welfare scheme in Minnesota, The View claims it's all "smoke and mirrors" and Trump's way of "trying to demonize immigrants." Behar also claims Biden's loss of the Somali vote over Gaza was actually Trump's lost voters; the real reason he's angry. pic.twitter.com/LL9vgTRyV5 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 3, 2025   Joy Behar Claims Trump Is Threatening to Kill the Families of GOP Lawmakers One of the more insane accusations to be flew out by Behar occurred back in February, when she asserted that Congressional Republicans were going along with Trump’s agenda because the President of the United States threatened to have their families killed: NAVARRO: But you know why was Mitch McConnell able to do it now? Because now he has no fear of retribution from Donald Trump. BEHAR: Yeah, that's right. NAVARRO: Whereas, everybody else is terrified of him and toeing the line. BEHAR: Somebody said they were afraid for their lives and also the lives of their children and their wives. It's not just not being re-elected. It's physical threats that go on.     The View-Anon: 'Mob Boss' Trump 'Never Intends to Leave' White House One of the points of their conspiracy theories was to scare the bejeezus out of their viewers with predictions of nightmarish futures. According to Hostin in October, Trump was building a ballroom because he planned on never leaving the White House: HOSTIN: He is extorting and looting the federal government, at is – in my view, and he's extorting and looting the federal government at he’s already extorting and looting. (...) How about the fact that our tax dollars now, if he gets this $230 million, is going to be used to renovate a White House which he never intends to leave!  So, that’s what this is. This is about a mob boss extorting the government for his own personal, I guess, you know, gratitude and enrichment. And we are basically as taxpayers providing Trump and his family a lifestyle that he otherwise couldn't afford. ABC News Claims Trump Axing DoE to ‘Create’ a ‘Permanent Underclass’ In another instance of The View trying to paint a picture of America’s future of ashes, Hostin declared that the only reason Trump wanted to do away with the Department of Education was to make the populace easier to subjugate and make into cheap labor: HOSTIN: It's not really about saving money. BEHAR: No. HOSTIN: I think there's a much more nefarious reason for it. BEHAR: Which is? HOSTIN: I think it’s because without education, you get cheaper labor. I think what they want to do is create in the United States a permanent underclass, a permanent cheap workforce, because educated workers cost more. That is the bottom line, and that's what they're doing.     If this was the journalist standard of ABC News, it’s not really a news outlet but a propaganda outfit.

On Monday at Mar-a-Lago President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about several issues including the cease fire in Gaza, and the missile threat from Iran. The recent U.S. strike against Venezuela also came up at the press conference after the meeting. And there was some interesting coverage going on over at CNN both pre and post meeting. Prior to Monday's post-meeting press conference with the two leaders, CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene was busy repeating what she had learned from unnamed "administration officials", and that is, that Netanyahu is the problem. Here she is on CNN News Central. TREENE: ..One of the key things,.. is making sure that they can get Netanyahu to commit to that phase two, part of that ceasefire agreement that was initially struck back in October. It's actually something that in my conversations with Trump administration officials, they had expected would be underway at this point... But a lot of people are also worried, and I say a lot of people, people in the Trump administration, worried that perhaps Netanyahu is slow-walking those talks and that he's not as committed and invested in the broader peace plan than he had initially let on. Because I should say, initially he got a lot of what he wanted out of this cease fire proposal. You know, the return of the hostages. One thing he's been complaining about and criticizing is that Hamas has refused so far to turn over the last living.. excuse me, the last remains of the the final deceased hostage. And so it's really going to be, I think, a key question of what happens behind closed doors when they emerge from this.  Very interesting reporting by Treene. Her "unnamed sources" accusing Netanyahu, her claiming that Israel got "the return of the hostages", which was called for in phase 1, then reluctantly acknowledging that there is still one deceased hostage. Ran Gvili still being held by Hamas, and they also refused to disarm, another violation. Later after the two leaders met, Trump would meet with Gvili's parents and threaten that Hamas had better disarm, or "there'll be hell to pay for them." He also would say that, "Israel has lived up to the plan 100 percent", shooting a hole through the CNN sources' "slow-walking" claims. But none of this stopped Treene from spewing the same claim against Netanyahu, when she appeared on The Lead, with Phil Mattingly filling in.  TREENE: (Trump) believes Israel is living up 100%, was the term he used, to their commitments in this deal. And that is different than what I'm hearing in some of the conversations with other Trump administration officials, which there's been a lot of concern and some skepticism that potentially Netanyahu is slow walking this process for phase two to kind of, you know, he was never fully invested in a long term peace deal. Apparently she couldn't resist repeating herself.  But the worst of CNN occurred on NewsNight With Abby Phillip. During a panel discussion on Trump's efforts on Ukraine, Emma Vigeland brought up "our complicity in the genocide in Gaza" and compared Israel's response to October 7 to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Scott Jennings let her have it for not condemning Hamas.   All three nightly network newscasts covered the meeting, of course, but gave the Gaza topic relatively little time, instead concentrating on Trump's warning to Iran, and the strike on Venezuela. Only CBS's Ed O'Keefe mentioned the Trump meeting with Ran Gvili's parents. None of the three shows referenced those unnamed administration sources blaming Netanyahu, which was a bit surprising, given how much gravitas CNN's Treene granted them.

There's something hilarious in the lefty Hollywood trade magazine Variety channeling George Clooney attacking CBS News as falling apart and apparently not holding Donald Trump accountable. The leftist press never holds George Clooney and his fellow Hollywood Democrats accountable. Executive Editor Brent Lang is a typical cozy kitten in this Clooney cover story, channeling his view that Trump's lawsuits against the media were "frivolous." Variety is frivolous. Variety's headline emphasized Clooney's "GFY" bravado: “If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, ‘Go fuck yourself,’ we wouldn’t be where we are in the country. That’s simply the truth.” Brent Lang failed to Google-search Clooney and his record on defamation suits: "The investigative organization The Sentry, co-founded by George Clooney and John Prendergast, settled a defamation lawsuit in late 2022." Clooney has energetically pushed the leftist myth of CBS News standing up against McCarthyism under Edward R. Murrow, and constantly comparing that hackneyed leftist crusade to the present day, and who cares if the Soviet Union actually infiltrated the country with spies after World War II? Who cares about The Truth again? Not Clooney. He's naturally pissed at Bari Weiss for daring to move CBS one inch toward the center.  “Bari Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak,” Clooney says. “I’m worried about how we inform ourselves and how we’re going to discern reality without a functioning press.” For her part, Weiss handled Clooney by inviting him in, sending Variety this statement: "Bonjour, Mr. Clooney! Big fan of your work. It sounds like you’d like to learn more about ours. This is an open invitation to visit The CBS Broadcast Center, where I’m spending the holidays working to relaunch the Evening News with my colleagues. Tune in January 5." To the Clooneys, a "functioning press" means going Full Jim Acosta all the time. It's in the pose and in the lunge at The Right-Wing Enemy, not in the facts. Clooney thinks the Glory Days at CBS apparently include Dan Rather's Fake News about George W. Bush's National Guard record, not to mention Rather screaming at his father about Iran-Contra. But he let Robert Redford embarrass himself with the Fake News Movie on that front.  When the Rathers and the Steve Krofts cuddled up to the Clintons or the Obamas, well, that was not "dismantling CBS News." Because its purpose is to advance the "right side of history," not holding that side accountable. But Lang is his publicist. Clooney, who always seems to run cool, grows animated discussing how certain members of that profession have abandoned journalism’s mission to hold the powerful to account. It makes him think about something Murrow says in both the film and the play. “‘Let’s not confuse dissent with disloyalty,’” Clooney says. “I mean, what a beautiful, important statement about who we are at our best. But all too often we fall short.” Clooney has long been one of the entertainment industry’s most outspoken liberals, so it’s no surprise to hear that he believes President Trump’s behavior flies in the face of Murrow’s ideals. “It’s a very trying time,” Clooney says. “It can depress you or make you very angry. But you have to find the most positive way through it. You have to put your head down and keep moving forward because quitting isn’t an option.” How did Clooney do in holding Joe Biden to account? He watched his cognitive decline close up at a June fundraiser, and said nothing for almost a month, until after Biden's terrible debate. But Brent Lang doesn't question Clooney or hold him accountable, he shamelessly puffs him up:  In 2024, Clooney made a big political stir, not by criticizing Trump, but for a New York Times op-ed he wrote urging Joe Biden to drop out of the race following his debate meltdown. Many Democrats were relieved that someone was taking a stand that might save the country from Trump, but the Biden family has continued to criticize Clooney for being disloyal. Soderbergh says, “I thought, ‘Holy shit.’ It’s classic George. He knows there are going to be so many people pissed at him, but if something is wrong, he’s going to speak out. Somebody had to say it.”  Oh, he was so brave! A classic!  Lang even promoted Clooney's bravado on X. What a publicist he is:  George Clooney's next act: The Oscar-winning star on saying goodbye to leading man roles, his idea for another "Ocean's 11" movie, and why news organizations should have told Trump 'go fuck yourself' instead of settling lawsuits. https://t.co/fnaCg19XJH — Brent Lang (@BrentALang) December 30, 2025

The New York Times is not your most reliable narrator on all stories about NPR: their weekday podcast The Daily runs on hundreds of NPR affiliates, which creates an obvious rooting interest for the network. On Tuesday, Times media reporter Benjamin Mullin poured on the sympathy for almost 2,500 words, starting with the headline: NPR’s C.E.O. Was a Right-Wing Target. Then the Real Trouble Started. Katherine Maher has taken an unyielding approach to NPR’s biggest battles — which has sometimes put her at odds with her colleagues in public media. As usual, Mullin and the Times line up the "right-wingers" and avoid the "L word." Start with paragraph 2: Right-wing activists dredged up her old posts on social media and tried to get her fired. Congress stripped more than $500 million in annual funding from public media. She has become a target not just of NPR’s traditional opponents on the political right but of some within the tightknit world of public broadcasting, who wanted her to take a more pragmatic tack. So NPR has "traditional opponents," but that doesn't exactly mean they're on the liberal side. Mullin touted Maher's hard line against the right, after "her predecessors were accused of bringing a tote bag to a knife fight." Ms. Maher, 42, stood by her strategy. “The government targeted public funding to punish specific editorial decisions it disagreed with,” she said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “That’s not a funding dispute dressed up as a constitutional case; that’s textbook First Amendment retaliation.” Ms. Maher’s stance brought support pouring in for her organization. NPR emerged from the biggest political battle in its history on firm footing, generating record donations. In a previous statement, Maher called it "retaliatory, viewpoint-based discrimination." Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! They engage in retaliatory discrimination all the time. Mullin didn't interview any conservatives to rebut this First Amendment bilge or anything else. That L word did pop up in the middle of the piece: In early April 2024, two weeks after she started, Ms. Maher and NPR faced an unexpected crisis. Uri Berliner, a senior editor at NPR, published an essay in The Free Press accusing the network of a liberal bias in its news coverage. The crisis deepened a week later. Chris Rufo, the conservative activist who ran social media campaigns against figures including Claudine Gay, the former Harvard president, circulated years-old social media posts from Ms. Maher that criticized Donald J. Trump and supported liberal causes. (“Also, Donald Trump is a racist,” read one.) Maher had a pile of outrageously radical posts that would have made juicier quotes, which were no doubt a plus in getting the NPR gig. Mullin noted NPR's critics "seized the moment" and requested in May of 2024 that she "testify on allegations of bias." He did not note she skipped that hearing -- so much for accountability. I testified then about how Maher should have to face Congress.  NPR and PBS responded to conservative arguments of liberal bias by denying reality and attempting no moderation in the daily drumbeat of that bias. Maher stiff-armed any compromisers:  On a call this spring, Patricia Harrison, the chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, asked Ms. Maher whether she would be willing to say anything to members of Congress or the press to acknowledge concerns from listeners who viewed NPR’s reporting as biased, according to two people familiar with her remarks. Ms. Maher rebuffed that suggestion. She didn’t believe that NPR was biased, and she thought saying so would undermine the organization and fail to placate those who were critical of the network, according to a person familiar with her thinking. After she refused, months of simmering tension between the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR came to the surface. Ms. Harrison told Ms. Maher she should resign her position for the good of public media. Mullin offered another cursory treatment of the March 26 hearing where the NPR and PBS CEO's ridiculously denied their systematic leftist tilt. It had a "you say tomato, I say to-mah-to" sound:  The hearing was predictably divided along partisan lines. The Republicans, who argued that NPR and PBS were outmoded, a waste of taxpayer money or liberally biased, interrogated Ms. Kerger and Ms. Maher, asking the NPR chief executive about her social media posts and the network’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop. The Democrats praised NPR and PBS and mocked the proceedings (“Is Elmo now, or has he ever been, a member of the Communist Party?”). This also happened when Mullin and his colleague Michael Grynbaum covered the hearing. As we noted at that time, the Times included absolutely none of the Republican questions loaded with examples of taxpayer-subsidized propaganda, and they never mentioned conservative witness Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation. This left the impression that the Republican “dark pronouncements” had no basis in fact. Who needs to confront our truckloads of evidence?