We’ve got a brand new, fun interactive series for the new year called Worst Media Take of the Week, where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media take of the week.   Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).   The results of the Worst Media Take of the Week are in and the winner is… Elie Mystal! The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal and MSNBC regular won with a resounding 70 percent of the vote! Comedian/actress Rosie O’Donnell (who fled the U.S. for Ireland) came in second with 21 percent. Former New York Times columnist and MSNBC contributor Anand Giridharadas finished dead last with 9 percent of the vote. Mystal won for bellowing that the government should “eliminate all voter registration laws,” so it is easier to vote against President Donald Trump’s “fascism.” Mystal previously took home the Worst Media Take of the Week award back in February for his attack on Trump voters.  The following is a montage of all the nominees:      WINNER (70 percent of the vote)   “Eliminate All Voter Registration Laws” So It’s Easier to Vote Against Trump’s “Fascism” “We could eliminate all voter registration laws. See, when Democrats get in charge, we try to protect voting rights….We have to expand voting rights so that the 90 million people that sat on the couch and sat out this last election between democracy and fascism, so that maybe they have a little bit of an easier time to get up off the couch and come participate in the democracy.”— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, March 24.   SECOND PLACE (21 percent of the vote)   Rosie O’Donnell Wonders If Elon Rigged Election for Trump “I question why the first time in American history a president has won every swing state and is also best friends and his largest donor [Elon Musk] was a man who owns and runs the Internet. So I would hope that that would be investigated and that we would see whether or not it was an anomaly or something else that happened on election night in America when Kamala Harris was filling up stadiums with people who supported her and Donald Trump was not able to do that.”— Comedian/actress Rosie O’Donnell on Ireland network RTE’s The Late Late Show, March 21.   THIRD PLACE (9 percent of the vote)   “Apartheid-Era Elon” Is “Burning the Republic” for “Wannabe Autocrat” Trump “No one in America voted for apartheid-era Elon to be in charge of anything. No one in America….It is personalistic politics, where a wannabe autocrat in Donald Trump has outsourced the slashing and burning of the republic to apartheid-era Elon and no one wants this and they are gonna find out.”— Former New York Times columnist/MSNBC contributor Anand Giridharadas on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, March 20.   Thanks again to all who participated!    Support provided by James P. Jimirro

On Sunday, Axios co-founder Mike Allen revealed the White House press team will be taking over the seating chart for news outlets inside the Brady Briefing Room, wrestling control from the elites that rule the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) and a chart that primarily rewards corporate liberal media outlets. Allen wrote “[i]t’s the latest — but likely not the last — effort by the White House to take a heavier hand in shaping who covers President Trump” by “upend[ing] decades-old press corps traditions” even though a source emphasized the tweaks would be to represent new outlets, not simply ones that openly support President Trump. Sunday’s scoop came just over a month after the team — led by Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich — assumed control of schedule for the press pool, a smaller, rotating group of reporters for White House events and travel. As part of that change, they booted the Associated Press over the Gulf of America name change, triggering an ongoing lawsuit. Allen’s source argued the alterations to seating chart would be “based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today” with newer voices being added to the front from “TV, print and digital outlets,” such as “online influencers and newer organizations” like “Axios, NOTUS and Punchbowl.” The anonymous official made clear those rewarded per se won’t be entirely based on whether the White House has received “favorable coverage,” but “truly an honest look at consumption” and an outlet’s ability to be there day in and day out. It was for that reason, they told Allen, that those moved towards the front wouldn’t necessarily all consist of influencers because, while “important...they aren’t [equipped to provide] consistent coverage.” Before those who still give their full faith and credit to the liberal media, Allen said “[m]ajor legacy outlets will still be included. But expect some to have diminished visibility compared with their customary spots in the first few rows.” Allen also shared this move came as some in the WHCA “have been looking for ways to de-escalate” with one member having “privately raised the possibility of changing the organization's bylaws so the sitting White House press secretary, currently Karoline Leavitt, always serves as WHCA president,” but there’s obvious doubt its membership would approve it. To help think through where the seating chart currently stands, we’ll walk through the first three rows to show how the legacy liberal media dominate the front and the eye of the press secretary. Going from left to right from the press secretary’s perspective, row one includes CNN, Reuters, ABC, Associated Press, CBS, Fox News, and NBC. In row two (and still going to left to right), the seats go USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), Bloomberg, CBS News Radio, and the Wall Street Journal. Moving in the same direction for row three, liberal outlets still dominate with ABC News Radio, Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse (a major wire service), foreign pool (a rotating seat for a reporter representing an overseas outlet), McClatchy (a newspaper chain), PBS NewsHour, and Politico. Daily Wire? They have to stand in the aisle. Breitbart and Real America’s Voice? Same deal. Axios and Semafor are also without seats.  Where do our friends with Newsmax sit? In the center of row six. Thankfully, Real Clear Politics and The Washington Times have their own seats...but in row five. How about our friends with the New York Post, America’s oldest, continuous newspaper? They have a better slot in the middle of the fourth row, but they have to share it with TheGrio. In fact, many smaller outlets have to share their seat with multiple other outlets. Here are a few others. NewsNation? Row seven, split with Scripps (which laid off hundreds last year, doing away with around-the-clock national news). Daily Caller? Also in the last row (seven), sharing time with another friend of ours in EWTN.

2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism winner Andrew Kerr penned a blockbuster piece Monday morning in the Washington Free Beacon that revealed far-left Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) lives in $1 million home DeKalb County, Georgia without having every owed a penny thanks “to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he still serves as part-time senior pastor when he's not representing the state of Georgia in Congress.” Continuing his reporting on Warnock (which included this doozy in 2022), Kerr wrote the accommodations are far more than a typical, run-of-the-mill parsonage: The DeKalb County home came equipped with a plethora of luxury accommodations, including a 100-bottle wine fridge, a Bluetooth-enabled stainless steel cooking range, custom crown molding, and a walk-in closet affixed to a "stunning" European bathroom with a remote-controlled privacy curtain. That privacy extends to Google Maps, where the images of the property are blurred from view. Warnock, who quietly moved into the home in 2023, now lives there rent-free, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Georgia state records show that Warnock listed the home as his primary residence when he registered to vote in November 2023, and real estate records indicate the property is owned by Ebenezer Baptist Church, which, according to public records, snapped it up for $989,000 in October 2022. Kerr noted the house is “exempt from nearly all of them, even from those that subsidize Atlanta-area schools, libraries, parks, bonds, and local government operations” as it’s a church property. Warnock’s shamelessness extended to his attorney, who didn’t deny he lived there and even boasted it’s his “personal home.” Unsurprisingly, Kerr said “Warnock himself has not publicly disclosed his new housing arrangement” even as he just two weeks ago told congregants to donate money toward “a $3.5 million church fundraising campaign known as One Ebenezer devoted to, among other things, ‘reducing our mortgage debt’” with a suggestion of “‘at least’ $139 on top of their 10 percent tithe in honor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church's 139th anniversary.” Warnock seems to have a penchant for cushy digs as Kerr noted Warnock also has “$1.15 million Capitol Hill townhouse in Washington, D.C.” along with tax documents showing “a church salary of $31,800 in 2023 as well as nearly $461,000 in book royalties” Unfortunately, Kerr interviewed two government ethics experts and both said this arrangement is likely legal and doesn’t go against Senate ethics rules. Check out the Kerr’s full report on Warnock and his new digs (including what a former colleague made of all this) here.

In a shocking turn-around, the White House Correspondents’ Association canceled plans to have extremely anti-Trump comedian Amber Ruffin perform at its annual dinner on April 26. President Trump, as well as his press secretary Karoline Leavitt, will not be attending the typically tilted proceedings.  As Variety reported:  Ruffin told a podcast backed by The Daily Beast that she would not try to make sure her jokes targeted all sides of the political spectrum as the WHCA had requested, and likened the Trump administration to “kind of a bunch of murderers.” Playing to both sides “makes them feel like human beings,” she said, “cause they’re not.” Let's guess no "independent fact-checkers" will throw a flag: Team Trump is not a "bunch of murderers" and they are human beings. Here's the clips, as Ruffin talked with fellow leftist comedian Samantha Bee and editor Joanna Coles. Bee asked who's coming from the White House: RUFFIN: I don't think the people confirm until quite a bit later. I don't necessarily -- like I'm not 100% interested in being like, “ha, you're here [Trump people], look at your stupid head, you're burned.” I care, uh, like, you're kind of a bunch of murderers. [Laughs] I mean, so like, they [the WHCA] were like. You need to be, you know, equal, and make sure that the that you give it to both sides, and blah blah blah. I was like, ‘there's no way I'm gonna be freaking doing that, dude, under no circumstances.’” The WHCA has a long history of hosting liberal attack comedians for their dinners -- or in the Obama years, they were liberal adoration comedians. There seemed to be no need for a balance of jokes. One might guess the "murderers" line was worse than the "no way I'm gonna mock both sides" line.  Then the "they're not human beings" schtick came a little later.  RUFFIN: But I do think like there will be a like sense of what the hell are we doing?   BEE: Yeah! Like, it's bonkers that we're still acting like things are normal. I don't know, we're all going on this roller coaster, right? Like you spend 5 minutes like, hey, we've had worse, then you turn a corner and you're like, no, this is as bad as it will ever be, nothing is this bad. Yeah, I'm glad to be on that roller coaster with you guys. COLES: I mean, did they actually say to you that it needs, you need to go after both sides equally? RUFFIN: what they said was is that they had been, uh, they had, uh, had people bring it up in the past, how uneven the, uh, comedy was. COLES: Because usually the comedy is directed at whoever is the president at the time. So even when you went to the Obama White House Correspondents Dinner, which he did attend, there were tons of jokes about him, and he was probably more aligned with the media than any other most recent president. RUFFIN: Yeah, I think it's just that burns on Trump hurt badly [?] and and then it trickles down to everyone who is around him. Cause you're all also guilty. So I think it just they got their feelings hurt, but if they want that false equivalency that the media does. They want that. It feels great. It makes them feel like human beings, but they shouldn't get to feel that way cause they're not. BEE: Some people are more culpable than others. And they get more jokes made about them and the jokes are meaner because they're doing things that are worse in a lot of ways. That's how that goes. It can't be even. It actually can't RUFFIN: I don’t see how you could do it. BEE: It can't be evenhanded RUFFIN: Without becoming a part of what’s wrong. WHCA president Eugene Daniels -- who recently signed up to host at severely anti-Trump MSNBC, issued a statement that was a little difficult to believe:  “The WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year. At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists." It was easier to believe Daniels in his original take on the Ruffin booking a few weeks ago: “When I began to think about what entertainer would be a perfect fit for the dinner this year, Amber was immediately at the top of my list."

It seems that the Senior Associate Editor at Atlantic magazine, Saahil Desai, was not aware of how much he revealed about leftist intolerance of political diversity to the point of seeming absolutely demented when he wrote a story about an experiment he conducted. He decided to drive around the Washington D.C. area for a day in a Tesla Cybertruck in order to see what reactions it would inspire. The result of his experiment will probably not be pleasing to many Atlantic readers due to the discomfort caused by Desai holding up an inadvertent mirror revealing their toxic attitudes. Oh, and Desai's praise for the Tesla Cybertruck will probably make them even less happy. The very first paragraph of Desai's Saturday article, "My Day Inside America’s Most Hated Car," paints a very poor picture of the prevalent attitude among his fellow liberals: On the first Sunday of spring, surrounded by row houses and magnolia trees, I came to a horrifying realization: My mom was right. I had been flipped off at least 17 times, called a “motherfucker” (in both English and Spanish), and a “fucking dork.” A woman in a blue sweater stared at me, sighed, and said, “You should be ashamed of yourself.” All of this because I was driving a Tesla Cybertruck. It only took until the very next paragraph for Desai's revelation about liberal attitudes to go from very bad to even worse: As I idled with the windows down on a street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, a woman glared at me from her front porch: “Fuck you, and this truck, and Elon,” she yelled. “You drive a Nazi truck.” She slammed her front door shut, and then opened it again. “I hope someone blows your shit up.” And liberal hate, inspired by the mere sight of a Cybertruck, continued into the third paragraph: Earlier that day, my first stop was the heart of the resistance: the Dupont Circle farmers’ market. The people there wanted to see the organic asparagus and lion’s-mane mushrooms. What they did not want to see was a stainless-steel, supposedly bulletproof Cybertruck. Every red light created new moments for mockery. “You fucker!” yelled a bicyclist as he pedaled past me on P Street. The diners eating brunch on the sidewalk nearby laughed and cheered. Then came the next stoplight: A woman eating outside at Le Pain Quotidien gave me the middle finger for a solid 20 seconds, all without interrupting her conversation. After some more observations of unhinged leftist hate, Desai wrote something that could earn him eternal enmity from the very same liberals he was describing. He PRAISED the performance of the Cybertruck: Over and over again, as pedestrians and drivers alike glared at me, I had to remind myself: It’s just a car. And it’s kind of a cool one, too. It can apparently outrace a Porsche 911, while simultaneously towing a Porsche 911. Or it can power a house for up to three days. My day in the Cybertruck wasn’t extremely hard-core, but the eight onboard cameras made city driving more bearable than I was expecting. Regardless of what you do with it, the car is emissions-free. “The underlying technology of the Cybertruck is amazing,” Loren McDonald, an EV analyst at the firm Paren, told me. And the exterior undersells just how ridiculous it is. Just before I returned the car on Monday morning, I took an impromptu Zoom meeting from the giant in-car touchscreen. It has a single windshield wiper that is so long—more than five feet—that Musk has compared it to a “katana.” Attention Elon Musk! Your Cybertruck has just received a GLOWING REVIEW from the pages of Atlantic magazine. Perhaps you can quote Atlantic's senior associate Saahil Desai in your Cybertruck advertising material. And considering the source of the review, we know that Mr. Desai had to be over the top impressed by the Cybertruck despite all the deranged leftist hate directed towards it.