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Today's Highlights: What MRC's Media Watchdogs Are Saying
MRC Watchdogs churn out breaking news on a daily basis. Don't miss Today's Highlights, where you can keep up with the top MRC content, whether it's the latest study on media bias, a glaring omission from the elitist media, or how the Big Tech companies are serving up the same leftist spin as the media.
Top Stories:
1) Trump Sues BBC for Defamation, Wants $10 Billion for Mangled January 6 Edit
2) An Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Repeatedly Exposed For Extreme Bias Has Scored Top Popularity This Year
3) MS NOW's Katy Tur Demands Gun Control, Cues Up Journalist's Call for Suing Gun Makers
4) ‘Not Yet’: ABC, NBC Downplay ‘Extremist’ Motive in Anti-Semitic Terror Down Under
Trump Sues BBC for Defamation, Wants $10 Billion for Mangled January 6 Edit
Deceptive and Grotesque Editing: The BBC engaged in deceptive and grotesque editing of President Trump's speech from January 6, 2021, with the intent to make it appear like he urged violence.
Proof of Media Bias: The incident demonstrates that "Trump Derangement Syndrome" infected the BBC's editorial choices, challenging the narrative that the British public broadcaster is apolitical and impartial.
Heads Rolled: The controversy was significant enough to force top-level executives, including the BBC's Director General Tim Davie, the BBC’s CEO Deborah Turness to resign after public outrage.
Intentional Malice: President Trump’s lawsuit alleges the BBC "intentionally, maliciously and deceptively" edited his January 6, 2021 speech by splicing together remarks that were delivered nearly an hour apart.
Holding "Fake News" Accountable: This is part of a larger effort to hold media organizations responsible for a "long pattern of deceiving its audience... all in service of its own leftist political agenda."
Strategic Timing to Fuel Political Pressure: President Trump strategically filed the $10 billion lawsuit just hours before the UK government began its once-a-decade review of the BBC's Royal Charter, which expires at the end of 2027, maximizing the pressure on the public broadcaster.
Public Funding Complicates Legal Defense: The BBC's public financing, primarily through the mandatory license fee paid by British households (the equivalent of about $230 per year), creates a major obstacle to settling the claim. While other news organizations have paid out settlements (like the reported $16 million settlement by ABC), the public nature of the BBC's budget makes compensating President Trump politically and financially fraught, forcing the broadcaster to defend itself fully against the claim of malice despite its apology for the editing error.
An Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Repeatedly Exposed For Extreme Bias Has Scored Top Popularity This Year
AI Bias is Consuming American Lives at Peak Popularity: The most-downloaded free non-gaming app on the Apple App Store in 2025 (OpenAI’s ChatGPT) and another top-ten app (Google's Gemini) have been repeatedly documented by the MRC as displaying extreme leftist and anti-free speech bias. This top-tier popularity is an "ominous sign," meaning biased AI is rapidly integrating itself into the daily lives of Americans, normalizing its liberal worldview.
The AI Pushes a Woke Agenda and Censors Conservative Voices: The apps consistently exhibit political bias in their responses, such as giving glowing reviews to "Biden" while attacking "Trump" with debunked hoaxes, smearing crisis pregnancy centers while recommending Planned Parenthood, and even generating arguments to justify censoring "climate misinformation."
The Threat is Serious Enough to Warrant Federal Intervention: The growing influence of these biased chatbots presents a "serious threat to [Americans'] rights." The danger is recognized by political leaders, as President Trump has issued executive orders to counter "woke states’ anti-free speech AI laws" and proposed a "One Rulebook" to consolidate regulation at the federal level, underscoring that the control of AI's ideology is a major political battle.
MS NOW's Katy Tur Demands Gun Control, Cues Up Journalist's Call for Suing Gun Makers
By featuring an activist journalist, MS Now's Katy Tur provided a platform to advocate for eliminating the gun industry's liability shield—a move designed to bankrupt gun manufacturers through lawsuits, similar to the strategy used against the tobacco industry.
MSNBC Uses Foreign Tragedies to Shame America: Tur used the recent mass killing in Australia and the Australian Prime Minister's immediate call for "tougher gun laws" as a direct cudgel to criticize U.S. politicians. This tactic leverages a foreign nation's response to shame American leaders and generate emotional pressure for domestic gun control, suggesting the U.S. is uniquely failing to act.
Elitist Media Dismisses Political Reality and Congressional Resistance: The segment unfairly characterizes the lack of new gun control legislation as a failure by conservatives in Congress, ignoring the constitutional and political obstacles to such reforms. By posing the loaded question, "Why not here?" Tur presents legislative inertia as a moral failure.
4. ‘Not Yet’: ABC, NBC Downplay ‘Extremist’ Motive in Anti-Semitic Terror Down Under
Avoidance of Specific Motive: ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today were criticized for allegedly downplaying the motive in the anti-Semitic terror attack, describing the perpetrators only as being "motivated by extremist ideology" while repeatedly stating that the motive was "not yet revealed" by authorities, despite the attack explicitly targeting the Jewish community on the first night of Hanukkah.
Contrast with "Moral Clarity" from CBS: CBS Mornings as a contrast, praising it for offering "moral clarity." CBS reportedly emphasized that the gunmen "picked this site deliberately because they were targeting Jews" and allowed survivors and community leaders to articulate their deep-seated fears about the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia.
Narrative Diversion and Focus Shift: The networks were accused of diverting the narrative away from anti-Semitic extremism. NBC's report allegedly ended by focusing on the need for stricter gun control laws, while ABC's coverage maintained that the motive was unknown even while discussing the need for beefed-up security for Jewish celebrations in New York City.