"Worry more about being called biased than about being accurate. Do all of this, consistently, for years, and you will be surprised when the things people warned you about come to pass. The surprise is built into the methodology.

There’s a cost to this."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #BothSides #media #journalists
/16

"Political journalism has developed a set of practices that make surprise the default response to predictable events. Treat every denial as meaningful. Frame every warning from advocacy groups as partisan overreach. Insist on a both-sides structure even when one side is lying."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #BothSides #media #journalists
/15

"We are now one year into Donald Trump’s second term, and something strange is happening in political media. A lot of people who spent years insisting that the so-called 'alarmists' were being hysterical have started, tentatively, to admit that maybe they got it wrong. …

At a certain point, you have to ask what it would take to not be surprised."

~ Parker Molloy

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #BothSides #media #journalists
/14

readtpa.com/p/this-is-literall…

This is Literally the Job

Political journalists need to stop pretending they don't know what Republicans are going to do.

^{Parker Molloy (The Present Age)}

"Trump’s cowardly enablers are largely responsible for the abyss America has plunged into."

~ Paul Krugman

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #BothSides #media #journalists #Democrats #Republicans
/13

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how…

How Canada Became an Enemy

It’s not about trade, it’s about ego

^{Paul Krugman}

"They were chastised by a mushy mainstream that prized decorum over diagnosis and tone over truth."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #journalists #BothSides
/10

(continued from /8)

"not only by MAGA true believers, but by those in positions of power in media, politics, and business who congratulated themselves on being sober-minded and pragmatic. Too many who understood what was coming were labeled hysterical. Alarmist. Radical. Unserious. They were told to calm down. To respect norms that were already being shredded."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #journalists #BothSides
/9

"When the history of this age is written, there will be no shortage of evidence about what went wrong. There will be no plausible claim of ignorance. ...

Looking more closely, those who look back will find something else that demands explanation. They will see that the people who most clearly recognized the danger were often dismissed and ignored —" (continued)

~ Elliot Kirschner

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #journalists #BothSides
/8

elliotkirschner.substack.com/p…

We Knew This Would Happen

But those warnings were ignored

^{Elliot Kirschner (Through the Fog, by Elliot Kirschner)}

"As journalists, we must remember that our responsibility is not to present both sides evenly; it is to make a determination about the facts that helps audiences understand a chaotic world."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #journalists #BothSides
/7

"The administration’s gross misrepresentation of 'the facts' poses a particular test for newsrooms. If journalists uncritically repeat baseless claims about domestic terrorism in their coverage, they risk laundering, and spreading, the often ludicrous statements of MAGA officeholders. But the press is still squeamish about directly calling out the administration’s lies."

~ Jem Bartholomew

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #BothSides
/6

cjr.org/the_media_today/ice-te…

‘Terrorist! Terrorist! Terrorist!’

From Minneapolis to Gaza, how does the press responsibly report killings when officials act in obvious bad faith? By looking out the window. 

^{Columbia Journalism Review}

"I argued after the shooting of Renee Good that nothing makes people lose trust in news organizations as much as when they’ve seen something with their own eyes — and then see news coverage that doesn’t comport with what they themselves experienced.

And I think that will be even more true with the Pretti killing."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #NewYorkTimes #journalists #BothSides
/5

"And then you could sense a countervailing tide, presumably directed by more senior leaders, of coverage mired in both-sidesism and weasel words, carefully measured so as to not 'take sides' even when one side was the truth and the other was lies."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #NewYorkTimes #journalists #BothSides
/4

"It was particularly fascinating to watch the New York Times, where you could see bursts of bold, direct, honest coverage of what reporters had seen with their own eyes.

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #NewYorkTimes #journalists #BothSides
/3

"All you have to do is watch the videos to know that’s true. There is no good-faith debate about the facts. ...

If you were watching the news coverage in real time, like I was, you could see the lies working. Some news organizations simply resorted to stenography. Some contrasted the administration account with the videos, but left it at that."

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #journalists #BothSides
/2

"It’s been incredibly sad to see my beloved news industry struggle so publicly with whether and how to tell the truth about the wanton, brutal killing of Alex Pretti -- someone who did absolutely nothing wrong –- at the hands of the masked federal agents terrorizing his city."

~ Dan Froomkin

#AlexPretti #Trump #MaskedThugs #murder #execution #media #journalists #BothSides
/1

criticalread.substack.com/p/mo…

Moments of bravery and cowardice in the news coverage of Alex Pretti’s killing

Truth-telling is hard when your bosses are bootlickers

^{Dan Froomkin (Press Watch)}

"Journalists, please remember that repeating obviously false statements is not balance or fairness. It is actively participating in deception."

~ Kyle Clark

#ReneeGood #AlexPretti #Trump #murder #execution #violence #lies #Minnesota #fascism #authoritarianism #media
/14

bsky.app/profile/kylec.bsky.so…

The new Emma Monk blog explores the issue of the lack of vetting in the Metropolitan Police (with some stark data), the Q. of the role of 'diversity hires' & how this has all be presented in the Right wing press.

As she concludes, these papers 'aren’t informing the public. They’re manufacturing a worldview'!

#politics #media #police #racism

monkdebunks.substack.com/p/the…

The Met hired rapists because vetting collapsed. Not because of diversity

A case study in how selective framing turns a policing scandal into a culture-war narrative.

^{Emma Monk (Monk Debunks: Beyond the narrative)}

"We all saw the video. ICE Agent Jonathan Ross shot at Renee Good from the left side of her vehicle, after Ross was no longer in any (alleged) danger of being run over. A private autopsy confirmed that Renee was shot in the left side of the head—a wound that confirms what we all saw on the video."

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Minnesota #ICE #ReneeGood #JonathanRoss #murder #media #BothSides
/21

roberthubbell.substack.com/p/j…

Jack Smith delivers the judgment of history (again)

January 23, 2026

^{Robert B. Hubbell (Today's Edition Newsletter)}

"This is no time for games, for toxic 'both-sides-ism,' for false equivalencies. This is a time to tell the truth. And stop amplifying narratives that perpetuate a dangerous distortion of what’s happening on the ground. Your city and state might be next."

#Minnesota #Trump #ICE #PoliceState #occupation #media #BothSides
/20

"ICE agents threw tear gas at a van carrying six children, and three of them went to the hospital, including an infant who had stopped breathing. ICE agents are pulling over public school transport vehicles full of students. ICE agents are pushing minors and high school students into streets full of incoming traffic; they’re launching tear gas and rubber bullets at senior citizens. They are terrorizing our city."

#Minnesota #Trump #ICE #PoliceState #occupation #media #BothSides
/19

(continued from /17)

"I am utterly exhausted by national media coverage that frames what is happening in America as some kind of political horse race, with two equal and equivalent partisan teams. As a former sportswriter, I am begging my journalism colleagues to do better than framing these stories as though you’ve covering a football game. Talk to people on the ground. pen your heart to see what is right in front of you."

#Minnesota #Trump #ICE #PoliceState #occupation #media #BothSides
/18

Angela Denker, a Lutheran pastor in Minnesota and author of Disciples of White Jesus, issues a strong rebuke to mainstream media for turning what's happening in Minnesota into a game with both sides offering competing and equally valid narratives:

"As a Minneapolis resident, mom, pastor, and long-time researcher on violent right-wing radicalization and Christian Nationalism -" (continued in /18)

#Minnesota #Trump #ICE #PoliceState #occupation #media #BothSides
/17

angeladenker.substack.com/p/de…

Dear Media, what's happening in Minnesota is not a game

A Special Edition of News with Nuance ...

^{Rev. Angela Denker (I'm Listening)}

"Meanwhile, anyone who watches the actual speech, or reads the full transcript, sees something entirely different. The gap between the raw material and the coverage is where the sanewashing lives."

#Trump #Greenland #NATO #fascism #Europe #media
/7

"Our narcissist in chief has exceeded Putin’s wildest dreams. Russia could not have imagined Trump would damage the US this badly."

~ John Harwood

#Trump #Greenland #NATO #fascism #Europe #media #Putin
/9

zeteo.com/p/trump-putin-damage…

Trump Has Exceeded Putin’s Wildest Dreams

Russia could not have imagined Donald Trump would damage the US this badly.

^{John Harwood (Zeteo)}

"Across the first three weeks of 2026, and especially yesterday, President Trump’s Mad King rantings about Greenland have accelerated into something far more stunning and alarming: We are watching in real-time as a superpower dies by suicide — an all-but unprecedented choice to self-immolate and torch the country’s remaining global trust and friendships."

~ Garrett M. Graff

#Trump #Greenland #NATO #fascism #Europe #media
/8

doomsdayscenario.co/p/watching…

Watching A Superpower Die By Suicide

This is one of the wildest moments in all of the modern 400-year history of nation-states and geopolitics.

^{Garrett Graff (Doomsday Scenario)}

"NBC: 'Trump calls for ‘immediate negotiations’ on Greenland, but rules out using force' ...

Every story that treats 'I won’t use force' as the news, rather than 'I reminded everyone that I could use unstoppable force,' contributes to a distorted picture of reality. Readers who rely on mainstream coverage encounter a version of Trump that has been sanded down, made palatable, rendered comprehensible within frameworks that don’t apply to him."

#Trump #Greenland #NATO #fascism #Europe #media
/6

"He said he wouldn’t do it. For now.

You won’t find this in any diplomacy textbook. It’s the language of a protection racket.

So how did reporters cover it?

NPR (original headline): 'Trump says
I won’t use force" to obtain Greenland in Davos speech'

ABC News: 'Trump rules out using military force to acquire Greenland in Davos speech'”

~ Parker Molloy

#Trump #Greenland #NATO #fascism #Europe #media
/5

readtpa.com/p/now-everyones-sa…

Now Everyone's Saying 'Oh, Good'

Trump told the media exactly how they'd cover his Greenland threats. They did it anyway.

^{Parker Molloy (The Present Age)}

Rep #HankJohnson (D-GA) is also questioning #JackSmith very effectively. Unfortunately it is very clear that this “hearing” is designed to be a sound bite generator for the #Republicans to shop around to #FarRight #media outlets.

#law #House #Judiciary #Trump #propaganda #SeditiousConspiracy #Jan6 #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #coup #democracy #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

"Instead, Tapper dismissed Trump’s multiple mistaken references to Iceland, saying, 'Trump clearly said Iceland. It’s not that big a deal. Why lie about it?'

Yes, Jake, it is a big deal."

In so many ways, Jake epitomizes what's seriously awry with legacy media: the arrogance, insularity, moral vacuity, elision of truth, cozying up to power and money. This is why many of us have stopped listening to the big pundits.

#Trump #Greenland #Iceland #Davos #dementia #MadKing #JakeTapper #media
/17

"Where is Jake Tapper when we need him? I hope he is feverishly working on his next book, which will detail Trump’s descent into dementia, claims that Tapper made about Biden in a wildly profitable book. Or, better yet, Tapper could just use his nightly news platform to report Trump’s rapidly deteriorating mental state. There is no time like the present, Jake."

#Trump #Greenland #Iceland #Davos #dementia #MadKing #JakeTapper #media
/16

'Trump embarrassed himself—and America--on the world stage at Davos. In a highly anticipated address, Trump stumbled and slurred his way through an incoherent stream-of-consciousness speech in which he repeatedly referenced Iceland (rather than Greenland), even as he surrendered his delusional quest to conquer Greenland."

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Trump #Greenland #Iceland #Davos #dementia #MadKing #JakeTapper #media
/15

roberthubbell.substack.com/p/t…

Trump collapses on world stage at Davos.

January 22, 2026

^{Robert B. Hubbell (Today's Edition Newsletter)}

Peter Rothpletz notes the obsessive focus of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on Biden's cognitive decline, and he then offers a list of crazy Biden statements that he claims Tapper and Thompson uncovered, which prove Biden's dementia.

But these are Trump statements, about which Tapper-Thompson have had absolutely zero to say….

#Trump #Greenland #Iceland #Davos #dementia #MadKing #JakeTapper #media
/14

zeteo.com/p/dementia-vs-davos

First Draft: Dementia vs. Davos

The US President has mashed potato brains, ICE kills again, and the late Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA threatens lawfare against Candace Owens.

^{Peter Rothpletz (Zeteo)}