The Elitist Media appear to circle the wagons as the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger approaches, terrified that CNN might face editorial standards approaching fairness. Perhaps this explains why news of the California-led Democrat lawsuit to block the deal was left off of the evening news on ABC and NBC. The CBS Evening News did cover the lawsuit. Here is that brief in its entirety, as aired on Monday, July 13th, 2026: WATCH: @CBSEveningNews was the sole network evening newscast to report the Democrat-led lawsuit to block the Paramount-WBD deal. TONY DOKOUPIL: Some news tonight concerning Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS News. 12 states filed an antitrust suit today aiming to… pic.twitter.com/hQP4PzMW01 — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 14, 2026 TONY DOKOUPIL: Some news tonight concerning Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS News. 12 states filed an antitrust suit today aiming to block the roughly $110 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery. The state attorneys general, all Democrats, said the deal would create a monopoly and undermine competition, violating a century-old law. Paramount Skydance argues the opposite, that the merger would increase jobs and increase consumer choice. Government regulators in several other countries have signed off and so has the U.S. Department of Justice. There is more to the story than Dokoupil could cram into that brief towards the end of their A-block. Per NPR: A dozen states, led by California, are suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation's largest movie studios, television newsrooms, and other entertainment properties. "The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement announcing the suit, which was filed in federal court in California's Northern District. … The other states involved in the lawsuit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington. An overlapping cadre of Democratic state attorneys general have sued to block the takeover of local TV giant Tegna by Nexstar, the nation's largest owner of television stations.   “Overlapping cadre” is how NPR roundabout disclosed that the lawsuit is filed exclusively by Democrat attorneys general- but at least they disclosed it. And this disclosure is very important. The crown jewel of this merger, at least as far as the Elitist Media are concerned, is CNN. As our very own Curtis Houck previously exposed, the media (and their self-appointed hall monitors) are terrified that CNN might become “MAGAfied”: (Oliver) Darcy argued “CNN staffers have every reason to be worried” and predicted it’ll undergo a “MAGA-fication” akin to what he said has happened at CBS.  As Curtis notes, there is no factual basis to these fears. The “MAGA-fication” of CBS did not materialize. In addition to the many examples provided by Curtis, I know this firsthand because I am still watching Margaret Brennan ply her trade on Sundays.  As I pointed out on the NewsBusters Podcast, the left want to preserve and retain their Regime Media. Conversely, the media would like to continue to operate as a Regime Media for Democrats, where anything Donald Trump gets a 93% negative spin and the Hunter Biden laptops (or Platner Totenkopf tats) of the world get suppressed into oblivion per secula seculorum. Thus, the introduction of any standards in news reporting gets hysterically smeared as “MAGA-fication.” This is part of the reason why ABC and NBC kept this story off their evening news. It is a story about Democrats wanting to control the flow of information to the American public.  

As a member of the Group Chat on Monday's edition of CNN This Morning, Adam Harris, a podcast host at the adamantly anti-Trump The Atlantic, couldn't resist injecting politics — and doing so in remarkably tasteless fashion — into the discussion of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's death and legacy. Harris began by recalling the "very sort of vicious campaign" of 2016, when Graham was running for president and trading barbs with Trump. The language was so harsh, Harris said, that if he used such language in a Group Chat, "I'm not necessarily coming back to the group chat after that." Moments later, the conversation turned to Trump's warm words for Graham. Trump had noted that the senator was "full of vim and vigor" and pushing hard for the Save America Act right up to the end. CNN host Audie Cornish pointed out: "I noticed the president still managed to mention his chief priority right now, the priority that is inadvertently holding up almost everything else." Harris pounced at that opportunity: "You know, it's interesting that the president mentioned him as, you know, a great politician. Because he [Trump] immediately starts playing politics as, Lindsey Graham -- before the body's even cold, necessarily, right?" 'The Atlantic' Host: Trump Played Politics on Graham 'Before Body Cold'@AdamHSays @CNNThisMorning pic.twitter.com/aZA0UUMpOr — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) July 13, 2026 Harris's comment may not have been vicious, but, without a doubt, it was utterly tasteless.  We'll have to see whether, on that basis, he's barred from the Group Chat. Then again, it's precisely that kind of tasteless attack on Trump that might score Harris future CNN appearances. CNN This Morning 7/13/26 6:02 am EDT AUDIE CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Eleanor Mueller, White House economy policy reporter at Semafor, Elena Schneider, national political reporter at Notus, and Adam Harris, co-host of Radio Atlantic. Thank you guys for being with me here on this Monday morning. And I have to say, I think it was a surprise and shock to everybody, because Lindsey Graham had very much been on the road. We're going to talk about his foreign policy approach in, later in the show. But first, I wanna talk about him as reflecting the arc of the Republican Party itself, going from anti-Trump to bear-hug Trump. Adam, can you talk about sort of how you were thinking about his legacy this morning? ADAM HARRIS: Yeah. You know, I, I, I -- when you think about the 2016 campaign, it was a very, sort of vicious campaign in terms of, of the language that they were, that they were using to describe each other -- CORNISH: When Graham was running for president -- HARRIS: -- for president, and, and he's, he's calling President Trump all sorts of names, things that, that, you know, if, if we're in a group chat, I'm not, I'm not necessarily coming back to the group chat after that. CORNISH: Yeah, exactly. . . .  Lastly, I wanna talk about the the president remembering him. Here was Trump on Sunday, talking to CNN, about what he'd like to see happen next, and his words for the late senator. [ DONALD TRUMP: He was pushing very, very hard, you probably know, he wanted to do the Save America Act, and he was talking about that. He was full of vim and vigor.  He was tired. He said, "I'm tired, because it's a long trip." But other than that, he was, he was fine. CORNISH: I noticed the president still managed to mention his chief priority right now, the priority that is inadvertently holding up almost everything else. HARRIS: You know, it's interesting that, that the president mentioned him as, you know, a great politician. Because [Trump] immediately starts playing politics as, as soon as, as, Lindsey Graham is -- before the body's even cold, necessarily, right?

The most obvious occasion for civility in Washington is the sudden death of a public official. It shouldn't be a time for score-settling and expressing glee. Lindsey Graham's death led to both of these. They first called it a "sudden illness," but it was later revealed as an aortic dissection, a collapse of a major artery. MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and NewsBusters nightly-news analyst Jorge Bonilla joined the show to discuss the reaction. Many Democrats paid heartfelt tributes to Sen. Graham, but several media figures couldn't resist putting an anti-Trump spin on the occasion. On MS NOW, Joe Scarborough made it all about himself by insisting he told the president the war in Iran wouldn't be as easy as Sen. Graham said it would be. On CNN, Jake Tapper baked the original recipe for CNN. Graham was once a "maverick" who supported liberal policy goals alongside Sen. John McCain, but then he ruined it all by "affixing" himself to the president, becoming a close Trump ally. Leftist magazines like The Atlantic recalled how the senator was "complicit" in Trump's evil. Then there were mean-spirited people like the actress Margaret Cho, who chirped that people died in threes, implying McConnell had died along with Graham, and hinting she hoped Trump would be next. It's amazing she plays someone else's therapist on the ABC drama Will Trent.  The Free Speech America watchdogs found Apple News and Google News suppressed negative stories on hard-left Graham Platner for months. They had no time for Nazi tattoos or Platner identifying himself as a communist. They also found the Big Four News Apps had next to zero interest in foreigners becoming delighted by America during their visit for World Cup soccer games.  In a possible move to dissociate himself from his endorsement of Platner, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) jetted to Israel and became embroiled in a situation when his group crossed security lines in the West Bank. In an interview with the Israeli ambassador to the United States on “Face the Nation,”  CBS host Margaret Brennan tried to defend the Khanna. The ambassador pointed out that Khanna refused to involve the government in getting him a visa, that he booked the trip with groups opposed to Israel, and this controversy could have been avoided. In Washington, controversy swirled over the hospitalization of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The senator issued a statement with a photograph, but Democrats insisted a video would be better proof that he's alive and well and talking weighty public policy issues. This raises the perennial and bipartisan problem that politicians (especially in the Senate) stay too long, not knowing when to quit.  Enjoy the podcast below. The audio can be found here. 

On Monday, MS NOW celebrated their 30th anniversary with a new ad that played at the end of Morning Joe. The 15-second advertisement celebrated the network’s so-called “journalism” that supposedly “strengthens our democracy.”  Notably, amid changes to the network programming, the promotion heavily featured the nighttime duo of Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow, two hosts who have showcased some unhinged moments in the age of Trump and whose programming was anything but impartial. Broken up with short soundbites from O’Donnell and Maddow, the advertisement’s narrator read: Celebrating 30 years… Delivering journalism that informs, empowers, and strengthens our democracy.   MS NOW has a new ad celebrating its 30th anniversary: “Celebrating 30 years ... Delivering journalism that informs, empowers, and strengthens our democracy." pic.twitter.com/V3m8ptDFor — Nick (@nspin310) July 13, 2026   The 30th anniversary also came after their high-profile divorce from NBC and rebranding to MS NOW under new Versant management. But, without its old name of MSNBC, the cable channel still had not proven itself a top source of journalism that “strengthens our democracy” more than it was a place to hype many of the top liberal fears. Some of the hard-hitting journalism MS NOW would celebrate during this anniversary might come from The Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell, who earlier this year said that the U.S. military under Trump was like Hitler’s army in World War II.  O’Donnell also had an obsession with Barron Trump at the start of the Iran War, as he implored Barron to enlist in the military or to traverse the Strait of Hormuz. More recently, O’Donnell said on air that he wanted a guest to “get personal” about Trump. The other main featured soundbite came from Maddow, who now only hosts a show on Monday nights, but still has enough time for “journalism” to constantly attack Trump and implore her viewers to attend protests, as she did just last month as she compared anti-Trump protestors to D-Day troops. Maddow has also feared, along with O’Donnell and many other MS NOW programs, a newfound, dubious stolen midterm election conspiracy. In the middle of June, during a Maddow-O’Donnell show handoff, the pair fearmongered “about Vance using ICE to rig the elections.” Other MS NOW hosts featured with brief images in the anniversary commercial have also not showcased the journalism they claimed to harbor. This was especially true with the featured hosts of Morning Joe, who spent last week with multiple defenses of Graham Platner, as Mika Brzezinski seemed unimpressed with a Politico report on rape allegations against Platner. If the network were dominated by the likes of partisans like O’Donnell, Maddow, and the Morning Joe crew as the ad suggested, their “journalism” might not strengthen democracy amid their partisan fearmongering. And that was just for the last year, not the 29 years of MSNBC prior.

With two days to go before the deadline to replace Graham Platner, Maine Democrats will meet to try to select another Senate candidate to fill in on the ballot for Platner, who withdrew from the race Friday amid a growing number of scandals. The Maine Democratic Party (MDP) has until July 27 to file paperwork replacing Platner on the ballot. The nominating convention to pick Platner’s replacement will be held on July 25 at the Bangor Cross Insurance Center, the MDP announced on Saturday. There, 601 delegates will vote to select the party’s new nominee. “Candidates will go through rounds of voting until one reaches a majority. The five candidates receiving the most votes in the first round will advance to the second round, and so on, until one candidate is chosen,” NBC affiliate 10 Boston reports. But first, each of Maine’s 16 counties will hold its own nominating meeting, on either July 18 or 19, to vote to select the county’s delegates to attend the July 27 convention. The date, time and location of those meetings, which can be virtual, must be announced by July 15 – which also serves as the deadline for registering to run for a delegate position. In a social media video post announcing the process, Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman framed the battle for the Senate seat as an effort to combat “the tide of a billionaire-driven, corrupt and cruel national government.” Parroting a party talking point, Dingman twice called the bid to regain control of the Senate a fight against an “existential” danger. After declaring his party’s support for abortion, Dingman claimed that Democrats are engaged in in an “existential struggle for democracy, economic justice and a secure future.” He then evoked the specter of climate change by calling for a “strong and visionary response to the existential threat to our natural environment.”