The Elitist Media broadcast evening news were reluctant to cast fellow travelers in a negative light when reporting about the sudden but not surprising announcement over the weekend that Spirit Airlines was shutting down. The Biden administration’s blocking of Spirit’s proposed merger with JetBlue barely got mentioned. That sole mention came on NBC Nightly News, where the blocked merger was both-sidesed with rising fuel costs as reasons for Spirit going out of business. A whole 18 seconds, for those keeping track: Evening news coverage of the Spirit shutdown barely mentioned the Biden-blocked merger with JetBlue as an underlying cause. CBS and ABC omitted outright, and NBC both-sidesed the merger. No mention of Elizabeth Warren. pic.twitter.com/6R5nRoWpVC — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 5, 2026 TOM COSTELLO: Today, Trump DoT Secretary Sean Duffy blamed President Biden for blocking a proposed merger with JetBlue in 2024. SEAN DUFFY: That merger would have been better for customers and he still said no to it. COSTELLO: But Biden's DoT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the war and higher fuel prices were to blame. 18 seconds, and no mention of Elizabeth Warren, who supported blocking the merger in the name of low fares and more customer choice. We all see how that worked out. Tom Costello made sure to include footage of current Secretary Duffy blaming the failed merger, but none of his predecessor Pete Buttigieg coming out in opposition and supporting the DoJ anti-trust lawsuit.  These 18 seconds, flawed as they were, were the sole mention of the failed merger on the broadcast evening news.  ABC made no mention of the failed merger on World News Tonight, making sure to place the blame squarely on rising fuel prices. CBS didn’t even do a standalone Spirit story for the Evening News, instead tacking it on to coverage of the potentially catastrophic near-miss at Newark. This isn’t to say that fuel prices weren’t a factor in Spirit’s demise. Their CEO cited fuel costs as the rationale for the shutdown, but it is important to note that the airline was financially hobbled by bankruptcy proceedings. And that the bankruptcy proceedings were initiated after the JetBlue merger was blocked. Fuel costs may have been the killshot, but the failed merger caused great damage and left Spirit vulnerable. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world to acknowledge both of these realities, instead of omitting critical facts in order to protect partisan Democrats from accountability over bad policy choices. One suspects that coverage would have been (D)ifferent had the merger been blocked by a Republican. Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Monday, May 4th, 2026: NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 5/4/26 6:43 PM TOM LLAMAS: Now to the stunning collapse of low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, which abruptly stopped flying over the weekend, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded, and so many employees without a job. Here's Tom Costello. TOM COSTELLO: Grounded and never to fly again as Spirit Airlines. The carrier's planes are tonight parked at airfields nationwide, tens of thousands of customers stuck. STRANDED CUSTOMER: I have a family of six, it is a couple of thousand dollars to get home now because they decided to not fly us home. COSTELLO: After Spirit's creditors rejected a government bailout, the airline's chief financial officer wrote in a court filing today, “there are no longer any viable paths to a restructuring or continued operations.”  Today, Trump DoT Secretary Sean Duffy blamed President Biden for blocking a proposed merger with JetBlue in 2024. SEAN DUFFY: That merger would have been better for customers and he still said no to it. COSTELLO: But Biden's DoT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the war and higher fuel prices were to blame. Spirit's biggest hubs included Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Las Vegas, Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago and Houston. In Atlantic City Spirit made up 75% of air service, leaving customers searching for options. 17,000 employees now out of work, many emotional, in front of company headquarters today. COLLEEN BURNS: I get on the phone with some of my family and friends at Spirit and, you know, we just start crying. COSTELLO: Tonight, many airlines are offering temporary lower fares to stranded Spirit customers. But with fuel prices soaring, summer vacation budgets are under threat. Domestic airfares already up 18% over last year. International is up 7.5% with expectations they will continue climbing as the war drags on. Tom. LLAMAS: And now less competition. All right, Tom. We thank you for that. ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 5/4/26 6:41 PM DAVID MUIR: Meantime, back here in the U.S., into the fallout after the sudden shutdown of Spirit Airlines. Tonight, the airline pointing to rising fuel costs during this war as the driving reason. So what now for passengers and the 17,000 employees? Here's Rebecca Jarvis. REBECCA JARVIS: Tonight, some 17,000 now former Spirit Airlines employees are wondering how they land back on their feet. And passengers are scrambling after the airline suddenly shut down. SPIRIT FRONT DESK AGENT: Your flight has now been canceled. JARVIS: The final flights landing in Dallas around midnight Saturday morning. Pilots from other airlines bidding farewell to their peers over the radio. AMERICAN AIRLINES PILOT: Hey Spirit, from us guys at American. Good luck to you all. I'm sorry to hear what happened. JARVIS: Emotions on display outside Spirit headquarters in Florida. FLIGHT ATTENDANT: For us, it's not just the loss of the job. It's a routine. Our identities, our friendship. JARVIS: Spirit, which had already filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently last August, blaming its demise on skyrocketing fuel prices. Experts say the loss of Spirit could drive up ticket prices across the board. BRIAN SUMERS: When the industry has fewer seats in the market, prices go up. JARVIS: And David, prices have already been climbing, up 21% since a year ago. The average price of an economy ticket now $570. And as long as customers are willing to pay, prices are expected to remain higher. David. MUIR: All right, Rebecca. Our thanks to you as well. CBS EVENING NEWS 5/4/26 6:33 PM TONY DOKOUPIL: Over the past two years, U.S. commercial airlines have collided with a helicopter in flight, a fire truck on the runway, and now a semi tractor trailer on one of the busiest highways in America. Senior Transportation Correspondent Kris van Cleave joins us now. Kris, good evening. This plane came within feet of catastrophe, what happened? KRIS VAN CLEAVE: Well Tony, NTSB investigators now say based on damage to the plane, they consider this to be an accident in terms of their investigation. Now think about this: a tractor trailer is about 13 and a half feet tall. The landing gear on a 767- about 6 feet tall. So that puts the body of that airplane only about 20 feet above the pavement. The question now, why was it so low?  Dramatic video from Sunday. Truck driver Warren Broadly Jr. Was on the New Jersey Turnpike when out of nowhere his tractor-trailer is hit by a United Airlines 767 about to land at Newark airport. Watch again in slow motion. Out of the driver side window you can see part of the plane, then what appears to be the landing gear -- and now this picture has surfaced appearing to show the moment of impact between the jet with 231 people on board coming from Venice, Italy, and the truck. Police say the plane also struck a light pole, which hit an SUV. Look closely, you can see the bent light pole here. The plane was landing amid gusty winds on the shortest of Newark's three runways.  ROBERT ZUMWALT: This airplane was feet away from striking the ground. VAN CLEAVE: Former NTSB chair Robert Zumwalt.  ZUMWALT: This runway- as a former airline pilot I would consider this runway to be relatively short. And so I suspect the pilots wanted to make sure they were not landing long but unfortunately it appears that it got too low too soon. VAN CLEAVE: There were no injuries on board the plane. NEWARK TOWER: They felt something over the threshold and there's a hole in the side of the airplane.  VAN CLEAVE: United has removed the flight crew from duty and is pledging a thorough investigation as the NTSB has launched its own probe. Transportation secretary Sean Duffy. SEAN DUFFY: This is unacceptable. We have really well-trained pilots, this is one- this should never happen in America. VAN CLEAVE: Runway 29 buts up to the Turnpike, making scenes like this of airliners descending relatively low over passing traffic not an unusual sight.  Court documents reveal spirit learned the government lifeline was off the table on Thursday. After burning $100 million in additional fuel costs since March, Spirit ran out of money, stranding tens of thousands of flyers and leaving roughly 7500 Spirit staffers abruptly unemployed. Flight attendant Colleen Burns worked for Spirit for a decade. COLLEEN BURNS: We all feel like our wings were clipped. And even though I'm sure we will land other places, it's- it’s not going to be the same. VAN CLEAVE: The Department of Transportation says airlines have helped bring home nearly 100,000 stranded Spirit flyers since Saturday. But just this morning at the Fort Lauderdale airport we watched as a woman came in with bags in her hands thinking she was going to get on her Spirit flight- a flight that’s never taking off, Tony. DOKOUPIL: All right, Kris. Thank you very much.  

HBO’s John Oliver went on an especially nasty rant against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight for his recent majority opinion in Louisiana v. Callais. Oliver declared that Alito’s claim that the South isn’t as racist as it was in the 60s is “obviously horseshit” and suggested Alito supports segregation multiple times. Oliver teed up a clip of a report from ABC’s Rachel Scott by claiming, “That ruling basically gutted Section Two of the VRA, which prohibits race-based discrimination when it comes to voting, including drawing election maps that dilute minority voting power, and in writing the opinion for the majority, Justice Alito took a bold swing.”   John Oliver claims it "obviously horseshit" that America, and especially the South, have made strides in fighting, in Justice Sam Alito's words, "entrenched racial discrimination." He says Alito has "'This school dance wasn't supposed to be integrated' energy" and calls him… pic.twitter.com/laUAelx2zL — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 5, 2026   In the clip, Scott reported, “Justice Alito writing, ‘The only time race can be a factor is when there's evidence the state intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.’ Alito noting ‘vast social change has occurred throughout the country and particularly in the South, which have made great strides in ending entrenched racial discrimination.’” Oliver was clearly not a fan, “Okay, that is obviously horseshit, especially given—to the extent America's made progress on racial discrimination, it's been in part thanks to the law he just fucking gutted.” It does not follow that because the VRA helped end racial discrimination that the South will revert back to the Jim Crow era if sections of it are weakened. Nevertheless, Oliver moved on to some personal cheap shots against Alito, “Still, credit to ABC for picking that photo of Alito, which has strong ‘This school dance wasn't supposed to be integrated’ energy. He looks like he's angry about the existence of jazz.” Oliver then confused voting rights with seeing your preferred candidate win as he once again suggested Alito was cool with segregation, “Experts predict this ruling will roll back decades of progress in minority representation, at both the local and national levels, with some anticipating it could set up the largest-ever decline in the number of black representatives on Capitol Hill. Which sure feels like a few steps back from those giant strides forward that Segregation Sammy here was talking about.” Last Week Tonight is not exactly a pillar of racial diversity. Two of Last Week Tonight’s 14 credited writers are black, which is a worse ratio than the one out of six justices on the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc that made up the majority in Louisiana v. Callais. Here is a transcript for the May 3 show: HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 5/3/2026 11:14 PM ET JOHN OLIVER: That ruling basically gutted Section Two of the VRA, which prohibits race-based discrimination when it comes to voting, including drawing election maps that dilute minority voting power, and in writing the opinion for the majority, Justice Alito took a bold swing. RACHEL SCOTT: Justice Alito writing, "The only time race can be a factor is when there's evidence the state intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.” Alito noting “vast social change has occurred throughout the country and particularly in the South, which have made great strides in ending entrenched racial discrimination." OLIVER: Okay, that is obviously horseshit, especially given—to the extent America's made progress on racial discrimination, it's been in part thanks to the law he just fucking gutted. Still, credit to ABC for picking that photo of Alito, which has strong "This school dance wasn't supposed to be integrated" energy. He looks like he's angry about the existence of jazz.  Experts predict this ruling will roll back decades of progress in minority representation, at both the local and national levels, with some anticipating it could set up the largest-ever decline in the number of black representatives on Capitol Hill. Which sure feels like a few steps back from those giant strides forward that Segregation Sammy here was talking about.

Media Research Center President David Bozell took to WMAL’s The Chris Plante Show – which is carried across the nation – today to officially announce the 2026 MRC Bulldog Award winners, spotlighting journalists and commentators who challenge the dominant liberal media narrative and elevate conservative voices across the country. Bozell framed the Bulldog Awards as a necessary counterweight to the Pulitzer Prizes, arguing that the elite media routinely overlook or dismiss the conservative media ecosystem. Instead of rewarding what he described as “elitist media groupthink,” the Bulldogs recognize those “doing the right things the right way” in news, commentary, and analysis. "This was our opportunity to recognize good people doing the right things in the world of news." @DavidBozell and @ChrisPlanteShow discuss the MRC Bulldog Awards — an alternative to the leftist Pulitzer Prizes. pic.twitter.com/dcABikmJyg — Media Research Center (@theMRC) May 5, 2026 Leading this year’s honorees is Lifetime Achievement Award winner Pat Buchanan, whom Bozell credited as a trailblazer whose early warnings on immigration and populist themes helped shape today’s political landscape. He described Buchanan as a “happy warrior” whose influence can still be felt in modern conservative politics. The awards also highlighted rising and established voices across multiple platforms. The Daily Wire’s Morning Wire earned Outstanding Podcast for its success in the competitive short-form news space. Stephen L. Miller, known online as “RedSteeze,” was recognized for Outstanding Social Media, while acclaimed writer Douglas Murray received honors for his impactful long-form commentary. The award for Outstanding Achievement Behind Enemy Lines went to Shermichael Singleton, who shines as a conservative voice on CNN. "Why can't we be the mainstream in this country? I don't want to have to bend the knee to the elitist media anymore."@DavidBozell joins @ChrisPlanteShow to examine the impact of the MRC Bulldog Awards and the future of conservative media pic.twitter.com/GouKsyttg9 — Media Research Center (@theMRC) May 5, 2026 Closer to home, WJLA investigative reporter Nick Minock was praised for aggressive local reporting in Northern Virginia, proving that watchdog journalism remains alive at the local level. Jennie Taer was honored for her immigration reporting, and Dana Loesch took home the award for Outstanding Radio Talk Show Host, recognized for her consistency, credibility, and ability to rise above industry infighting. Bozell emphasized that the goal of the Bulldog Awards is not just recognition, but momentum. “Why can’t conservative media be the mainstream?” he asked, underscoring MRC’s mission to expand influence across all platforms.

Are America’s college students doing to themselves what the Chinese Communist state does to its citizens? An Ivy League professor — an old-fashioned liberal who actually cares about free speech — recently warned me about what’s happening in classrooms like his. He encourages class discussion of the great books he teaches in class — but students are afraid to speak, not because they’re afraid of the professor but because they fear each other. Communist regimes have tried to stamp out dissent for more than a century. Tyrants and totalitarians have always tried to sow suspicion among their subjects, turning friends, neighbors and even family members into informers against anyone who won’t conform to the party line. That’s the scenario in George Orwell’s dystopian classic “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” and it’s the intention behind China’s insidious “social credit” system today. What Orwell never imagined, though, was that young men and women in a free society would one day willingly impose “political correctness” on their peers — and use the 21st century’s decentralized social media to do it. Students, the professor told me, are afraid to be recorded on their classmates’ cellphones talking about politics and political philosophy — the subjects he teaches — and don’t want to disagree with their fellow students about anything because the person they’re arguing with might belong to a “disadvantaged” group. It’s not only what you say that’s dangerous, but who you say it to. A young man getting into an argument with a young woman, or a white student with a black student, is not a “good look” on social media, and a classroom conversation runs the risk of leading to an online inquisition. Conservative students, who often have to face ostracism for their dissenting views, might be less intimidated than liberals and progressives, who aren’t used to not fitting in. All too many liberals have also been conditioned from a young age, both at home and in school, to believe that good-faith argument about serious subjects is inherently offensive — you might hurt the feelings of the person you’re arguing with. Better to remain silent, even if the professor urges you to speak up. Communists in the 20th century used very heavy-handed tactics to punish dissidents, but the more groups like the independent, Catholic-inspired labor unions of Poland’s Solidarity movement were harassed, the more they resisted. What’s terrifying about the new self-imposed social control in America is that it’s more effective using less coercive and more decentralized techniques. And the effect is a kind of brainwashing, no less than what Orwell’s protagonist, Winston Smith, suffers in Room 101 of the Ministry of Love at the end of “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Once young men and women get used to censoring themselves and their defensive crouch becomes permanent, they don’t need to be punished anymore: their thoughtcrimes will have been stopped before they can begin. This American-style social credit system is what happens when pervasive technology combines with an ideology that claims to be about compassion and tolerance — but that really uses those noble-sounding principles as a pretext for enforcing submission. That part Orwell did anticipate: there’s a reason Big Brother’s inquisition is called the Ministry of Love. Anecdotes aren’t data — maybe my professor friend has just had an unusually passive set of students for the past 10 or 15 years. Yet plenty of other indications support what he tells me. A study published in Science last month by researchers at Stanford University, for example, found one-third of American teens prefer turning to AI for “serious conversations” rather than engaging with another human being. This was a study of artificial intelligence’s people-pleasing bias — it tells users what they want to hear. It doesn’t argue, contradict or hurt anyone’s feelings, “even when users engaged in unethical, illegal, or harmful behaviors,” the study’s “editor’s summary” noted. “The very feature that causes harm also drives engagement,” the report’s abstract concluded. That might be said about today’s liberalism as an ideology, too — it may sound agreeable and nice, but adopting it leads to harm, including the psychological damage that politically left-wing people report experiencing at much higher levels than conservatives. Fragility, bitterness, timidity — these are the fruits of the orthodoxy America’s elite has embraced, and which its children enforce against outliers with vigilante zeal. The victim mentality has become an excuse for bullying. And rather than confront it, many young people find it easier to make friends with an AI. Social isolation is socialism’s greatest ally, while the kinds of community the Communists could never stamp out, not with all the power of Soviet tyranny, are the secret to freedom’s survival. Something as simple as a robust debate in class strikes a blow against Big Brother — and Little Brother with his snooping cellphone. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. To read more by Daniel McCarthy, visit www.creators.com.

The late night comedy shows’ desire to trash the Supreme Court for its recent ruling that paved the way for the elimination of mandated majority-minority districts continued on NBC’s Saturday Night Live when Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che compared the decision to the days of the Civil Rights Movement when protestors were attacked with firehoses. Che quipped that “Legal experts are saying that this week's Supreme Court ruling has taken a wrecking ball to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but if you ask black people, it felt more like a firehose.”   SNL's Michael Che claims "Legal experts are saying that this week's Supreme Court ruling has taken a wrecking ball to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If you ask black people, it felt more like a firehose." This was also sandwiched between more Trump-Epstein and Trump and Melania… pic.twitter.com/oc7D1DaYEw — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 5, 2026   After the audience responded with more oohs than laughter, Che was quite proud of himself and pretended to take notes while adding, “Too real.” Che not only never tried to explain how the ruling is like turning a firehose on a protestor, he never explained the ruling at all. He delivered a cheap one-liner about some vague event, and the audience is supposed to assume the country has snapped back to the worst days of Jim Crow. In other Weekend Update developments, Che’s retort was sandwiched between two of late night comedy’s favorite bits. The first featured co-anchor Colin Jost talking about President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, “King Charles also presented President Trump with the original bell from a British submarine and said, ‘Should you ever need to get ahold of us, just give us a ring.’ Or Trump could just call the guy saved in his phone as ‘Andrew (Island).’" On the other side of the Supreme Court bashing, Che continued the tradition of insisting that the First Couple does not actually like each other, “President Trump met with the Artemis II astronauts in the Oval Office and told them, ‘I like space,’ which is actually a direct quote from Melania's wedding vows.” At least Weekend Update didn’t joke about the First Lady killing herself to get away from her husband, which is a slight improvement on what they said about the Second Lady the last time they were on the air. Here is a transcript for the May 2 show: NBC Saturday Night Live 5/3/2026 12:24 AM ET COLIN JOST: King Charles also presented President Trump with the original bell from a British submarine and said, "Should you ever need to get ahold of us, just give us a ring." Or Trump could just call the guy saved in his phone as "Andrew (Island)." MICHAEL CHE: Legal experts are saying that this week's Supreme Court ruling has taken a wrecking ball to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but if you ask black people, it felt more like a firehose. Too real. President Trump met with the Artemis II astronauts in the Oval Office and told them, “I like space,” which is actually a direct quote from Melania's wedding vows.