On Wednesday's The 11th Hour, MS NOW host Ali Velshi devoted his show's regular "Night Light" segment to cheering on pilots who provide women with free plane trips to get abortions. Velshi began the segment by relating that a small plane is flying across the sky, adding: "Inside, there's no light. The plane itself is the light." He recalled that it was the anniversary of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade as he elaborated: MS NOW's Ali Velshi Cheers Free Plane Trips to Get Abortions pic.twitter.com/FlZykg5vO2 — Brad Wilmouth (@bradwilmouth) June 26, 2026 Tonight's "Night Light" is the pilot of the plane carrying someone to get the medical care that they couldn't get at home. Today marks four years since the Dobbs decision, the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned abortion rights and reversed nearly 50 years of settled law. The MS NOW host continued: Forty-one states now have abortion bans or restrictions in effect -- 13 of those are total bans, with only very limited exceptions. Studies show that women are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related deaths in states where abortion care is denied or delayed because of restrictions. That leaves nearly 21 million pregnant women forced to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to get care. He added: "Which brings us to Mike Bonanza, a volunteer pilot who founded Elevated Access. We discovered his story through the journalist Jessica Valenti's excellent Substack called 'Abortion Every Day.'" After noting that Bonanza's name is a pseudonym, Velshi informed viewers that hundreds of pilots have volunteered to transport women seeking abortions as well as people who want "gender-affirming care" in states where there are fewer restrictions: Even before the Dobbs decision, Bonanza had been offering volunteer flights for those who needed help getting to their nearest clinic. But within days of the Dobbs decision, over 500 pilots expressed interest in volunteering to help. The organization now offers completely free flights to those seeking abortion care, as well as gender-affirming care across the United States. He inserted more pro-abortion language as he added: Since Elevated Access began, they have helped over 3,600 passengers fly more than two million miles. For the people who have been told their bodies are not their own, these pilots are the ones who show up -- no fanfare, no press release, just a small plane in the dark and someone in the seat of that small plane on the way to getting the care they need -- the care they should have the right to. Transcript follows: MS NOW's The 11th Hour June 24, 2026 11:57 p.m. Eastern ALI VELSHI: Somewhere tonight, right now, a small plane is crossing the sky in the dark -- a small red light on its right wing -- its left wing tip -- a small green light on its left wing tip. Inside, there's no light. The plane itself is the light. Actually, not the plane -- really, it's just metal. Tonight's "Night Light" is the pilot of the plane carrying someone to get the medical care that they couldn't get at home. Today marks four years since the Dobbs decision, the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned abortion rights and reversed nearly 50 years of settled law. Forty-one states now have abortion bans or restrictions in effect -- 13 of those are total bans, with only very limited exceptions. Studies show that women are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related deaths in states where abortion care is denied or delayed because of restrictions. That leaves nearly 21 million pregnant women forced to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to get care. Which brings us to Mike Bonanza, a volunteer pilot who founded Elevated Access. We discovered his story through the journalist Jessica Valenti's excellent Substack called "Abortion Every Day." Bonanza notes in an interview in Men's Health that his name is a pseudonym. He said it's partly for safety reasons, but also to check himself against ever making this work about him. Even before the Dobbs decision, Bonanza had been offering volunteer flights for those who needed help getting to their nearest clinic. But within days of the Dobbs decision, over 500 pilots expressed interest in volunteering to help. The organization now offers completely free flights to those seeking abortion care, as well as gender-affirming care across the United States. They keep a team of lawyers to work around travel bans and help stay on top of constantly changing laws in each state. Since Elevated Access began, they have helped over 3,600 passengers fly more than two million miles. For the people who have been told their bodies are not their own, these pilots are the ones who show up -- no fanfare, no press release, just a small plane in the dark and someone in the seat of that small plane on the way to getting the care they need -- the care they should have the right to.

On Wednesday’s PBS News Hour, co-host Amna Nawaz provided an overheated take on the surprisingly tough sentences given to “anti-ICE protesters” in Texas in the wake of an attempted assassination of a police officer outside a migrant facility by a North Texas Antifa cell. While the evening news shows have ignored the sentencing, PBS did take notice, only to ridiculously condemn the sentences for terrorism as the “latest crackdown on dissent.” Co-host Amna Nawaz: Still to come on the News Hour….anti-ICE protesters are sentenced to decades in prison in the latest crackdown on dissent. The definition of “dissent” does not yet include the attempted assassination of a local police officer, the crime Benjamin Song was convicted of. Song told fellow cell members to “get the rifles” before firing on the officers, shooting one in the neck. Besides the false implication that the defendants were sentenced merely for belonging to Antifa, PBS made a seemingly inevitable comparison to January 6 rioters and Trump’s later mass pardon. Nawaz: In two federal courts yesterday, a group of protesters received unusually long sentences after the Justice Department accused them of being members of the far-left movement Antifa. The sentences range from 30 to 100 years in prison, longer than the harshest sentence handed down to any of the convicted rioters in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021. All of those people have since received pardons or commutations from President Trump…. Justice correspondent Ali Rogin relayed more of the standard media distraction that actually, Antifa doesn’t exist (but it’s still cool). PBS's Ali Rogin on sentencing for armed Antifa outside migrant center: Trump "labels Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization....[yet] Antifa is a decentralized movement, not a single organization...there is no federal charge of domestic terrorism under existing U.S. law." pic.twitter.com/6JZ29qn0ds — Clay Waters

CNBC addressed the elephant in the room with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) over communist Mamdani radicals winning their respective primaries against entrenched Democrat incumbents in the Big Apple. Jeffries’ canned response: Muh, but Trump! Squawk Box co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin cornered Jeffries June 25 over the antisemitic, pro-Hamas, America-hating sentiments spewed by House candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who was endorsed by extremist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Despite Sorkin pointing out disturbing anecdotes like Chevalier’s leadership of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University following the October 7 genocide or her call for abolishing police, Jeffries did the do-si-do and instead pivoted attacked Trump and the GOP, which literally had nothing to do with the initial question: Her views are clearly not my views, and that should be obvious to everyone in terms of what brings Democrats together … The smash and grab program that Donald Trump has been running, the largest pay to play scheme in the history of the country is completely and totally unacceptable … That's what the best of America has always been, and that's social security. That’s Medicare. That's Medicaid. That's the Affordable Care Act, that's veterans’ benefits. That's nutritional assistance — the very thing Republicans are trying to destroy right now. Co-anchor Joe Kernen didn’t let Jeffries off the hook and pinned him against the proverbial wall. “I remember last time you were on and you said almost the same thing that you just said, and we all nod.” Kernen continued: “And I know it takes time from the interview and everything, but it doesn't really answer the question that Andrew said.” Kernen further criticized that Jeffries’ non-answer “totally shifted from what we're talking about is whether when the Democratic Party includes someone in that tent that believes these things.”  @JoeSquawk gave @RepJeffries a layup of an opportunity to separate the Democratic Party from the crazy communist, anti-Semitic Mamdani-ites that won their New York primaries. Jeffries Response? "Muh, but Trump." pic.twitter.com/qT7wL1kNtw — Joe Vazquez (@JV3MRC) June 26, 2026 Kernen stipulated that having people with bona fide extremist policy positions aren’t “going to solve what you just talked about, or an answer to any of our problems that you delineate so eloquently. They were saying, ‘You're next’ about Hakeem Jeffries. ‘You're next! You're next! You're next!’ You can't — you can't think this is a positive development in New York politics, can you?” The Squawk Box personality then put Jeffries on the spot, “You need to reject — you need to reject those things!”  Jeffries clearly didn’t take too kindly to the line of questioning, as he tried cutting Kernen off. He then offered a pathetic, incoherent defense before pivoting once again to the president, repeating the same disingenuous misdirection Kernen accused him of making: First of all, first of all, I've clearly rejected those things. That's number one. Number two. And my record speaks for itself. This is not a ‘Dems will be Dems’ situation. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America right now. Are you kidding me?

The news media’s obsession with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool has continued apace. Earlier this week, we found that TV news had spent almost seven hours on the story in just the past nine days. As of Friday morning June 25, that total has reached almost ten hours across left-wing cable (CNN and MSNBC) and broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). MRC analysts looked at all reflecting pool coverage on major left-wing cable and broadcast networks from June 14 through the morning of June 26, 2026. In just that 12-day period, the story received 579 minutes and 31 seconds of coverage, or an average of over 48 minutes per day. While our previous totals found that CNN was uniquely obsessed with the condition of the reflecting pool, MS NOW has since overtaken them, with a grand total of 269 minutes and 50 seconds. Incredibly, MS NOW has run an absurd 108 minutes on the reflecting pool in just the last three days.  CNN, meanwhile, is now up to a total of 264 minutes and 41 seconds as of Friday morning, meaning they spent a still-massive 49 minutes on this story over the last three days. Broadcast networks ran a combined 45 minutes of coverage. CBS was by far the most interested in the story, with a total of 19 minutes and nine seconds spent discussing the reflecting pool renovations. NBC crept into second place with a total of 13 minutes and nine seconds of algae coverage, while ABC’s total coverage climbed to 12 minutes and 32 seconds. Despite MS NOW’s ratcheted-up fixation on the reflecting pool, the story does appear to be losing steam on both cable and broadcast television. MS NOW is, in fact, the only network to have dedicated a larger percentage of their airtime to the story in the past three days than they had over the previous nine days. CNN and the broadcast networks, meanwhile, have begun to pull back somewhat. Even the majority of MS NOW’s coverage occurred between June 20 and June 23, and it has since begun to taper. The 108 minutes that the network added to their total were heavily front-loaded; by June 25, the reflecting pool had morphed into more of an anecdotal mention that commentators threw into their analysis, rather than the central focus of full-length reports. Additionally, the tone on the two cable networks in particular has taken on an increasingly begrudging tone. Anchors and commentators alike have begun to ask, in earnest, why anybody is talking so much about the reflecting pool — even as they continue to cover it.

As NewsBusters was first to report last December, Navy veteran Zachary Young, the man who took CNN to court for malicious defamation and won, was set to release a memoir titled American Spy co-written by American Sniper author Scott McEwen. It would heavily describe CNN’s defamation from his perspective. But new information obtained by NewsBusters is that the Central Intelligence Agency, Young’s former employer, was blocking the book. Speaking with someone familiar with the matter, NewsBusters can confirm that the CIA is withholding permission to allow the book to be published; that’s despite the fact that everything in the book pertaining to Young’s time in the Agency was already part of the public record via the trial. NewsBusters has obtained a copy of the letter the CIA’s Publications Review Board received from Young. The letter, which included a copy of his manuscript, explained how all the information about his time in the Agency had already been released publicly and provided the evidence of it being broadcast around the world. In his opening paragraph, Young made it clear that while he no longer worked for the Agency, he was abiding by his obligation to submit his manuscript for review and was doing so in “good faith”: I respectfully submit the enclosed manuscript for prepublication review pursuant to my obligations as a former Agency officer. I understand that the purpose of this review is to identify and prevent the disclosure of classified national security information. I submit the manuscript in good faith to facilitate that process, and I note at the outset that, to the best of my knowledge, the manuscript contains no classified information. “The manuscript references certain details concerning my prior service with the CIA. All such references are drawn from the public record. They were introduced and discussed openly during Young v. Cable News Network, Inc., Case No. 03 2022 CA 000608, a defamation trial held in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida,” Young wrote. The letter pointed out that the CIA had every opportunity throughout the legal proceedings and the trial to have his affiliation with the Agency sealed and/or kill the case entirely. They punted: It was not conducted under the Classified Information Procedures Act. No party invoked classified information procedures. No government entity intervened, sought to seal any portion of the record, requested a protective order, or asked the court to restrict testimony, exhibits, broadcast coverage, or public access to the record. The proceedings were broadcast nationally by the Law and Crime Network and viewed by a substantial public audience. The testimony and exhibits referenced in this submission, including materials referencing my prior CIA service and my status as a former NOC, were admitted, displayed, or discussed in open court and became part of the public trial record. Following the trial, my prior CIA affiliation was also reported publicly in multiple national and international news articles concerning the verdict and the litigation. The Agency had full advance notice that these matters would be addressed in litigation. On May 24, 2023, counsel for CNN formally contacted the CIA’s Office of General Counsel under 32 C.F.R. § 1905.4, requesting confirmation of my prior employment and advising the Agency that CNN intended to pursue discovery concerning my alleged CIA positions, security clearances, alleged Agency projects, high risk missions, extractions, and evacuations. The Agency responded on June 28, 2023, through Assistant General Counsel Erin M. Alleman. The Agency declined CNN’s Touhy request and refused to produce information. Although the Agency cited sources and methods, the Privacy Act, the CIA Act, and potential classification concerns as reasons for refusing CNN’s request, it did not invoke classification in the litigation itself. It did not intervene. It did not seek sealing. It did not request a protective order. It did not ask the court to restrict deposition testimony, trial testimony, exhibits, broadcast coverage, or public access to the record. The matter then proceeded through discovery, deposition, and a full public trial without Agency intervention. It’s possible that the CIA had blocked the book to hide from the embarrassment. Young points out that it’s part of the public record that  former CIA Director of Public Affairs Tammy Kupperman Thorp inappropriately outed him to CNN’s Alex Marquardt, who was fired months after the trial: The trial record also establishes that my prior CIA affiliation was not merely incidentally mentioned by a private individual or inadvertently disclosed by an unauthorized outsider. It was confirmed through the Agency’s official press function. The documentary record, admitted as a trial exhibit and broadcast nationally, shows CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt formally tasking the Agency’s Office of Public Affairs on October 29, 2021, stating: “FYI I asked Tammy if they can look into the other guy’s claim that he’s CIA.” This was not a casual conversation. It was a directed request to the Agency’s official press office to look into whether a named individual was connected to the CIA. Marquardt testified under oath at trial that Tammy Kupperman Thorp, who served as the CIA’s Director of Public Affairs from 2021 to 2025, confirmed my Agency background and described the practice as a “steer,” which he defined on the record as the Agency’s established method of informally confirming information to credentialed journalists. The CIA’s block also puts the future of Young’s possible TV show in jeopardy, since it’s based on the book. A source tells NewsBusters to expect legal action against the CIA.