Democratic socialists, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, claim they’re going to increase “affordability” by raising taxes, but that can never work because, unlike liberal propaganda, commerce isn’t based on emotion, conservative commentator Mark Levin explained in his “Liberty’s Voice” podcast Friday. “Commerce is not emotional. It’s factual. It is what it is. It proves itself to be right every single time,” Levin explained. “But, when you’re dealing with people’s passions and emotions and you’re telling them they can get something for nothing, and not only that, somebody’s ripping them off,” common sense can lose out, because the most-prosperous citizens – those the left vilifies – are the minority among the population of voters. Levin cites the case of Mayor Mamdani's socialist promises: “Those of you who are in New York: you’re paying for all these things that are supposed to be free. In other words, he’s redistributing wealth. He’s redistributing wealth. “So, what happens when you redistribute wealth? You have less wealth, because aren’t going to create it or they’re going to leave, create it somewhere else.” “You’re giving money to the people who aren’t creating things and you’re taking it from the people who are creating things” and, in the long run, that drives out, not only those who provide jobs, but also the average citizens who can’t afford to pay the higher taxes required to provide “free” things to others.

On Friday, Florida’s First District Court of Appeals agreed to hear oral arguments in Navy veteran Zackary Young’s two defamation cases against The Associated Press and Puck News. The hearing comes after Judge William Scott Henry of Florida’s 14th Judicial Circuit threw out both cases back in August 2025. Now, there were positive signs for Young that the First DCA could breathe new life into his claims. While they were each separate cases, the First DCA had opted to conduct the oral arguments simultaneously, according to the official notices of oral argument obtained by NewsBusters. Both cases were scheduled for Tuesday, June 9 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. The filings explained which judges would oversee the case and how time would be allotted: The argument is scheduled before Judges Roberts, Winokur, and Treadwell, but the panel is subject to change. The Court has allotted 15 minutes per side. Multiple appellants or appellees, or petitioners or respondents, must share the allotted time and must notify the Court at the beginning of oral argument how their side’s time will be divided. A possible good sign for Young, two of the judges who would hear the cases, Judges L. Clayton Roberts and Thomas D. Winokur sided with him to reaffirm that he could seek punitive damages in his successful defamation case against CNN. Their overseeing of the case could be bad news particularly for the AP. Young’s argument against them centered on their use or alleged misuse of the phrase “human smuggling” to describe his efforts to rescue people from Afghanistan during the collapse. Citing the AP’s own style guide, Young points out that that word carries a criminal connotation when, as a matter of law ruled in the CNN case, he did not commit any crime. During CNN’s appeal of punitive damages, months before trial, Judge Roberts called out the network for their use or lack-there-of of dictionaries when suggesting Young was operating a “black market”: ROBERTS: Tell me how the Triad works. TOBIN: The Triad, your honor, is a group of three different departments at CNN. It's the Standards and Practices Department, it's the Legal Department, and it's the Editorial Department, they come together and – ROBERTS: So, these are lawyers and professional writers that, you know, are used to dealing with words and have dictionaries and know how precise – what words mean? TOBIN: One would presume, your honor, that they're educated people that they've been in the business for a while. But your honor, there is nothing in the record discussing the word “blackmail” [sic] at all among any of the CNN journalists. And it is plaintiff's burden.     Also pressing the importance for the definitions of words, Judge Winokur said this regarding the arguments being made by CNN’s counsel about the use of the word “black market” to describe Young’s efforts: “I hate to keep harping on this, but none of those things describe what could be commonly referred to as ‘black market.’ I see Judge Roberts's point that ‘black market’ clearly implies dictionary definition or otherwise, an illegal exchange of goods.” It appears that to them, words have meaning. Another possibly good sign for Young was the cases being heard together. In throwing out the cases, Judge Henry used similar language to dismiss them as one of those “movies or television shows, sequels, spinoffs or reboots” that “should not be made.” Adding: “Often times, the story line is forced, new characters are not properly developed, inconsistencies arise between the original plot and the sequel’s, or the writers and producers are just lazy trying to cash in on a previously successful idea. These same things can be said of this case.” The use of such language in both rulings could have the judges’ attention in a bad way. Interestingly, Judge Henry lost out to Judge Treadwell, the third appeals judge on Young’s cases, in a 2025 bid to be appointed to the First DCA by Governor Ron DeSantis following the CNN case. As for the Puck case, while Judge Henry argued they did note Young won his case, the appellate judges could put a greater weight on their other comments. Ones where they suggested it was a bad sign for the country because it added to President Trump’s feud with the press and somehow a win for him too, and allegedly mischaracterized Young’s efforts in Afghanistan in a similar way to CNN. To read NewsBusters’ complete coverage of Young’s defamation suit against CNN and the fallout cases, click here.

In a war of words between President Trump and Pope Leo, the PBS News Hour is going to line up with the pontiff, who they perceive as on "their side." To attack Trump, PBS on Wednesday welcomed on Stephen Colbert's favorite priest, Father James Martin, a leftist activist hailed for being "passionate about LGBTQ+ inclusion and advocacy within the Catholic Church." The online headline for the 8-and-a-half minute segment was "Pope Leo's critiques of Trump policies hold more weight as a fellow American, priest says." It's a little odd to imply on screen that it's wrong to be "Criticizing the Pope," when PBS found people to trash Pope Benedict for being soft on child abuse when he died. Anchor Amna Nawaz threw softballs at the priest, starting with this: "So let me just ask what you thought when you heard Vice President Vance warn Pope Leo to be careful on matters of theology. What was your reaction?" This was Martin's first answer knocking Vance as obviously dumber than the Pope.  Fr. JAMES MARTIN: That you have the vice president warning the vicar of Christ, who is an Augustinian, who is at that time visiting the birthplace of St. Augustine, and who knows more about St. Augustine than most people have forgotten, that he doesn't understand just war and that he doesn't understand theology, I just found that really hard to swallow. Then Nawaz asked: "Father Martin, this idea of just war, what should we understand about that?" Martin claimed "pretty much every theologian" agrees with him that the war on Iran is not a just war. Then she really set up Martin to drop rhetorical bombs:  Easy peasy for Catholics Against Trump! PBS @NewsHour turns to leftist activist Fr. James Martin. Anchor Amna Nawaz cued him up on his insulting the Vice President for "inaccuracy and hubris" and then asked him to denounce Trump's use of Jesus imagery. "Challenging" is not a… pic.twitter.com/fTGDngIZrg — Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) April 16, 2026 AMNA NAWAZ:  You posted a very lengthy response online, called out what you saw as the ironies of Vice President Vance's criticism of the pope. You also noted his conversion, and then you wrote: "We rejoice over everyone entering the church. What most of us do not rejoice over, however, is a deadly combination of inaccuracy and hubris." What did you mean by that? Fr. JAMES MARTIN: Well, the inaccuracy is that he doesn't seem to understand the tenets of just war, which you can look up all the Catholic leaders and cardinals and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that have talked about that in the past couple of days. And the hubris is telling the pope, of all people, who has a doctorate in canon law from a pontifical university and who has been an Augustinian for many years, that he doesn't understand theology. It's really pretty hard to imagine calling it anything other than hubris. So Nawaz cued him up to denounce Vance as a boastful moron twice. Then she turned over to Trump's memes either implying he's like Christ or that he's close to Christ:  NAWAZ: And, as we just reported, Father Martin, I have to ask you about these pictures. The president posted that A.I. image of himself being cradled by Jesus. That followed an A.I. image of himself as Jesus that he later deleted. That followed, we should remind people, an A.I. image of himself as pope. Do these images go too far, in your view? MARTIN:  Yes, I mean, particularly the one where he is picturing himself as Jesus. Some people have used the term blasphemy. I think it's more appropriate to call it idolatrous. The First Commandment is, you shall have no other Gods before me. And so to picture yourself as Jesus is really trespassing into that territory. And it's not just Catholics who are upset. I think any Christian who saw that would have to scratch their heads or be offended. NPR's Morning Edition on Tuesday also served up softballs for this left-wing activist priest. But at least NPR balanced it by pressing conservative Catholic journalist and commentator Michael Knowles on Monday's All Things Considered. 

In their warped definition of journalism, liberals present a parade of left-wing guests who get softball treatment as they reinforce a leftist narrative. On the rare occasion that someone from the other side is allowed to muddy their waters, they can count on a very different encounter, and sometimes those guests push back, as on Wednesday's The Situation Room on CNN. Several times during an extended interview, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y,) didn't just sit there and take it from co-hosts Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, as she went after CNN more than once. They wanted to talk Trump vs. Pope Leo.  BLITZER: The war has divided not only countries, Congresswoman. President Trump and Pope Leo are also split right now on several of these issues. You're a proud Catholic, as we all know. Is it appropriate for a wartime President to repeatedly attack the first American Pope because the Pope has been speaking out against this conflict? STEFANIK: I'm proud that we have the first American Pope. I don't want to see the Pope as a politician. And you know the President, we know his leadership style. He is going to stand strong for the American people. And the president of the United States is a political figure. Of course, he's going to be engaged in politics when he's politically attacked. I don't want to see the Pope get involved in domestic politics.  So Blitzer switched to the Jesus meme:  BLITZER: We've also seen the President post that AI generated image of himself as the Pope and as Jesus, if you will, which he later deleted and said portrayed him as a doctor. In your view, were those posts blasphemy? STEFANIK: Certainly the President made the correct decision in taking it down. And look, I know CNN loves to focus on the tweets and memes of President Trump. I look at his record of results. He has strong support from Catholics like me, and I've been proud of our record. The media can continue talking about the tweets. I talk about the results.  Brown then inserted more of the same argument:   BROWN: But it is notable he's attacking the first American Pope.  STEFANIK: The Pope from my perspective, should not be engaging in political attacks....So I was disappointed to see that attack from the Pope. And I know CNN wants to continue to focus on these tweets, what's been happening for the past ten years. Look at the results. BROWN: This isn't about CNN trying to focus on it, it is notable. It's always annoying when CNN pretends its partisan "news judgment" is always the definition of what's "notable." Stefanik then noted how Brown -- the daughter of the late Democrat Gov. John Brown -- stuck on one topic: STEFANIK: You just asked how many questions on it Pam? One after the other, after the other. BROWN: I asked follow-up questions because they were warranted. There she goes again with "my judgment is flawless." But she's not always interrupting guests. In March, Brown sat back and allowed Marjorie Taylor Greene to trash Trump, Israel and Fox News. She didn't find anything "notable" that "warranted" pushback.  As the interview turned to the topic of Eric Swalwell, Blitzer managed to put Trump right in the middle of it, going back to underline that a jury of Manhattan Democrats found him civilly liable for a 27-year-old claim of sexual misconduct.  BLITZER: Critics, including Democrats, argue there's a double standard right now when it comes to sexual misconduct. Back in 2023, a Manhattan federal jury found in a civil lawsuit that Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation. Trump denied all wrongdoing in that case.... Do you give any credence at all to this question of whether there's a double standard? STEFANIK: Absolutely not a double standard. If anything, the media is not focused on holding Democrats to account. That set off Brown, who brought up the story she and her CNN team broke last Friday, of four women claiming sexual misconduct by Swalwell, including a former staff member who claimed rape. But Stefanik's point seemed to be that Swalwell has been given a liberal media pass for quite some time on various issues, with the opposite for Trump. STEFANIK: Eric Swalwell is a protege of Nancy Pelosi, ran for president of the United States, has an FEC report that's public about all these expenditures with these women and the fact that there was no media scrutiny whatsoever....There has been a history of weaponized lawfare against President Trump.  One media pass given Swalwell, was his association with Christine Fang, who is a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. The FBI is reportedly ready to release documents from that investigation. As for Stefanik, she may not be back on CNN any time soon.

More than two-thirds of the book sales that earned Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom’s "Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery" a spot on The New York Times best-seller list were purchases by Newsom’s own political action committee (PAC), the publication reports. “Gov. Gavin Newsom offered supporters who gave any amount a copy of his book. Roughly 67,000 donors received the memoir, accounting for about two-thirds of its total print sales,” The Times reported Thursday. Out of the 97,400 print copies sold since the book’s February debut, 69% were purchased by the PAC and given to supporters who contributed any amount of money. Without the PAC purchases, Newsom would’ve sold only about 30,400 books. In all, the governor’s PAC, the Campaign for Democracy Committee, paid more than $1.5 million to the Porchlight Book Company for what describes as “books at cost” - by far the largest expenditure for the governor’s federal PAC in the first quarter of this year. A PAC offering books to donors is nothing new. But, in this case, the scale of the purchases is “noteworthy,” The Times reports. Fellow Democrat Kamala Harris also released a memoir earlier this year, for example. Her PAC, Fight for the People, likewise bought books from Porchlight and offered them in exchange for donations of any size. But, the former vice president’s PAC spent only $97,554 on copies of her book and didn’t make the offer until well after it had already become a best-seller. The Times also notes that, when it suspects that a book’s sales have been boosted by bulk sales, it tags that book’s title on its best-sellers list with a dagger symbol to notify readers that sales include more than just retail purchases.