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Saturday, September 20, 2025

Category: Media
March 15, 2025
Media

Trump Orders Overhaul of U.S. Propaganda Agency.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting specific federal agencies for operational reductions, including the parent organization of U.S. government-funded media outlet Voice of America (VOA). This action marks Trump’s ongoing efforts to streamline government operations. The order mandates these agencies to scale back their activities to the legal minimum.

Among the agencies affected are the U.S. Agency for Global Media, under which Voice of America operates, along with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Additional targets include the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency.

The order specifies a reduction in all functions not explicitly required by law and converts statutory tasks to their minimal implementation. This move signifies the latest step by Trump to transform the federal bureaucracy.

But the Department of Government Efficiency has only axed 100,000 positions within the 2.3 million-member federal workforce so far, putting a freeze on foreign aid, and terminating a handful of contracts and programs.

Trump previously had disagreements with Voice of America during his first term and has appointed former news anchor Kari Lake as its director.

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On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting specific federal agencies for operational reductions, including the parent organization of U.S. government-funded media outlet Voice of America (VOA). This action marks Trump's ongoing efforts to streamline government operations. The order mandates these agencies to scale back their activities to the legal minimum. show more
March 13, 2025
William Upton
Media
Politics

Michelle Obama Podcast Only Draws a Few Thousand Subscribers Despite Media Blitz.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama launched a new podcast with her brother, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson—but you can’t be blamed if you didn’t know. Despite an intense marketing campaign, the digital offering garnered only around 12,000 subscribers in its first 14 hours on YouTube earlier on Thursday. Even several hours later, that number still stood at just over 20,000.

While Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not publish real-time subscriber numbers, on neither site does IMO boast more than a few thousand reviews, with around 8,000 on Apple and just under 5,000 on Spotify. The podcast has received disproportional media attention and paid promotion, which typically translates to fairly quick success. However, that isn’t the case with the Michelle Obama offering.

Dramatic media headlines speculating about a possible divorce, based on a rather mundane complaint the former First Lady makes regarding her husband Barack Obama, do not even seem to be enough to generate listener interest.

Discussing their marriage, Mrs. Obama told her brother, “Barack, you know, he had to adjust to what ‘on time’ was for me.” She continued, revealing that former President Obama would wait until the last minute to use the bathroom or find his glasses when the family was about to leave.

“I was like, ‘Dude, a 3 o’clock departure means you’ve done all that,’ you know, it’s like, don’t start looking for your glasses at the 3 o’clock departure,” Mrs. Obama recalled, though she conceded her husband has gotten more timely: “He’s improved over 30 years of marriage, but that was a ‘you must adjust.'”

While the former First Lady’s absence from Jimmy Carter‘s funeral and President Donald J. Trump‘s inauguration—both attended by former President Obama—has fueled separation rumors, this remains speculation.

Image by Gage Skidmore.

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Former First Lady Michelle Obama launched a new podcast with her brother, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson—but you can't be blamed if you didn't know. Despite an intense marketing campaign, the digital offering garnered only around 12,000 subscribers in its first 14 hours on YouTube earlier on Thursday. Even several hours later, that number still stood at just over 20,000. show more
March 10, 2025
Media
News

Top Washington Post Columnist Resigns.

Yet another Washington Post employee has called it quits, complaining about the influence of the paper’s owner, tech billionaire Jeff Bezos. Ruth Marcus, a longtime political columnist and Associate Editor for The Post, has resigned following a clash with the paper’s leadership regarding changes to the opinion section.

Marcus, who has been with the Post for 40 years, cited Bezos’s push to align columns with his libertarian views as the reason for her departure. In a resignation letter, Marcus claimed that Bezos’s approach would damage the integrity of the opinion section.

Marcus’s departure follows the resignation of Opinions Editor David Shipley, who attempted to persuade Bezos to reconsider his directive.

When Bezos canceled a planned endorsement of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, it lost 300,000 digital subscribers. Bezos defended his decision in an opinion piece, asserting that ending presidential endorsements was a move to maintain perceived neutrality. Following President Donald J. Trump’s election victory last year, the paper lost an estimated $100 million in revenue.

Last month, the company lost another 75,000 digital subscriptions when Bezos announced that the editorial page would focus more on promoting “personal liberties and free markets.”

Numerous resignations have followed Bezos’s changes at the Post, including those of Associate Editor David Maraniss and former Senior Managing Editor Cameron Barr.

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Yet another Washington Post employee has called it quits, complaining about the influence of the paper's owner, tech billionaire Jeff Bezos. Ruth Marcus, a longtime political columnist and Associate Editor for The Post, has resigned following a clash with the paper's leadership regarding changes to the opinion section. show more
March 6, 2025
Wake Up Right
Fact Check
Media

CNN Caught Writing Fake ‘Fact Check’ on Trump’s Transgender Mice Claim.

CNN was forced to correct their “fact-check” after the outlet claimed President Donald J. Trump “falsely” stated that $8 million in tax dollars were used to study making mice transgender.

Back up: During President Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday, he rattled off a list of ways the federal government was wasting money, including “Eight million dollars for making mice transgender. This is real.”

CNN fact-check: Shortly after his speech, CNN published a fact-check article, which said Trump “falsely claimed” the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found $8 million for turning mice transgender.

  • The article suggested Trump was erroneously referring to a $477,121 project that gave monkeys estrogen for HIV testing.

The truth: The White House clapped back, providing a fact sheet with six studies funded by the Biden regime’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) “for making mice transgender” that totaled $8,290,053.

  • $3.1 million was spent to determine how to “treat and prevent asthma in cis and transgender women.”
  • $1.2 million was spent to learn how testosterone affects “transgender males” reproductive systems

CNN’s walk-back: The outlet quietly corrected its article, admitting Trump’s statement was “incorrectly characterized as false.”

The last word goes to the Trump White House’s rapid response account on X, which wrote:

  • “The Fake News losers at CNN tried to fact check President Trump… but President Trump was right (as usual).”

Be sure to subscribe to the Wake Up Right newsletter! 

Image by Polarqueen.

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CNN was forced to correct their "fact-check" after the outlet claimed President Donald J. Trump "falsely" stated that $8 million in tax dollars were used to study making mice transgender. show more
March 5, 2025
Media
News
Politics

Viewers Call for MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace to Be Fired for ‘Repulsive’ Comments About Boy with Brain Cancer.

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace is under fire for sullying President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to honor a child suffering from a rare brain and spine cancer during his address to Congress on Tuesday. The controversy centers on Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel, an aspiring law enforcement officer who was made an honorary Secret Service agent during the event.

Wallace turned the gesture into an opportunity to take potshots at the President, saying, “I hope [Daniel] has a long life as a law enforcement officer—but I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters,” adding, “If he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide.”


Wallace’s remarks have attracted significant backlash, with many calling for her immediate termination. Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA described her intervention as “genuinely the most repulsive comment I’ve heard in a very long time from anyone on television.”

During President Trump’s speech, Daniel’s battle with cancer was highlighted as a testament to his resilience. Diagnosed in 2018 and given five months to live, Daniel has defied the odds, surviving numerous surgeries.

MSNBC has already sacked other far-left pundits, including Joy Reid, who was terminated from the company and had her show, The ReidOut, canceled.

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MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace is under fire for sullying President Donald J. Trump's efforts to honor a child suffering from a rare brain and spine cancer during his address to Congress on Tuesday. The controversy centers on Devarjaye "DJ" Daniel, an aspiring law enforcement officer who was made an honorary Secret Service agent during the event. show more
March 5, 2025
Media

Actor Bill Murray Calls Anti-Trump Author Bob Woodward ‘Cruel’ and ‘Criminal.’

Legendary actor Bill Murray has had a tense exchange with writer Bob Woodward at a film screening in New York. The incident happened just days after Murray questioned Woodward’s journalistic credibility in an interview with Joe Rogan.

The pair crossed paths during the premiere of Becoming Katharine Graham, a documentary about the influential Washington Post publisher. Murray, during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, expressed discontent with Woodward’s 1984 book Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi, which faced criticism from several figures close to the deceased comedian. He added that this made him suspect Woodward’s journalism regarding President Richard Nixon may also lack credibility. “If he did this to Belushi, what he did to Nixon is probably soiled for me, too,” he said.

Recalling the late Belushi’s impact on comedy through projects including Saturday Night Live and Animal House, Murray expressed skepticism about Woodward’s motivations in writing about the comedian’s life and untimely death in 1982, aged 33.

The Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day star asserted that Woodward had relied on unreliable sources for his book, calling them “so far outside the inner circle that it was criminal, cruel” to use them.

Woodward has also written a number of books about President Donald J. Trump, branding the America First leader a “threat to democracy.”

WATCH:

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Legendary actor Bill Murray has had a tense exchange with writer Bob Woodward at a film screening in New York. The incident happened just days after Murray questioned Woodward's journalistic credibility in an interview with Joe Rogan. show more
March 5, 2025
Jack Montgomery
Media
War

Even the BBC Says Zelensky Has ‘Run Out of Road.’

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to submit to President Donald J. Trump suggests the Ukrainian leader has “run out of political road,” according to the BBC, which typically cheerleads for him while attempting to undermine the American leader. Following a confrontation with President Trump in the Oval Office—resulting from Zelensky starting a row with Vice President J.D. Vance in front of the press—a pause in U.S. aid for Ukraine was announced. Within hours, Zelensky issued a statement pledging, “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

“Washington’s hostile rhetoric, that Oval Office meeting and the ‘pausing’ of US military aid have forced him to bend to Trump’s peace vision,” the state-backed broadcaster argues. It notes that, while European leaders largely backed Zelensky following his White House showdown, with Britain and France even pledging peacekeeping troops, “made clear peace would still require US involvement.”

Most European NATO members have allowed their militaries to shrivel—with President Trump frequently accusing them of being “delinquent” on their alliance defense spending obligations—preferring to spend their money on migrants, net zero policies, and expansive welfare programs instead.

“[W]ith his European allies acknowledging that they still need the US, Washington seems still to be the only place for him to turn to,” the BBC notes.

Zelensky is already compromising by agreeing to sign a deal with the U.S. on rare earth minerals exploration without security assurances. Until now, The Ukrainian leader had been refusing to countenance a ceasefire and certain deals without so-called security guarantees—effectively a promise from the U.S. to go to war with Russia if a ceasefire is broken.

President Trump has made it clear to Zelensky that he is “in no position to dictate” terms to the U.S.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to submit to President Donald J. Trump suggests the Ukrainian leader has "run out of political road," according to the BBC, which typically cheerleads for him while attempting to undermine the American leader. Following a confrontation with President Trump in the Oval Office—resulting from Zelensky starting a row with Vice President J.D. Vance in front of the press—a pause in U.S. aid for Ukraine was announced. Within hours, Zelensky issued a statement pledging, “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.” show more
February 28, 2025
William Upton
Media
UK

BBC Forced to Apologize for Pro-Hamas Documentary Narrated by Son of Terrorist Group Leader.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is admitting a documentary on Gaza it aired was narrated by the son of a senior leader in the Hamas terrorist group, which perpetrated the barbaric October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel. Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone is narrated by Abdullah al-Yazouri, the son of Hamas’s Deputy Agriculture Minister Ayman al-Yazouri. It cost the BBC over £400,000 (~$503,000) to develop and was produced by Hoyo Films.

“BBC News has conducted an initial review on the programme ‘Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone’. Today the BBC Board was updated on that work. It has identified serious flaws in the making of this programme,” the public broadcaster said in a statement. “Some of these were made by the production company, and some by the BBC; all of them are unacceptable. BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation’s reputation. We apologise for this.”

According to the BBC, Abdullah al-Yazouri was paid a modest sum by Hoyo Films for his narration, though they insist that neither Hamas nor any other terrorist group profited from the production. Additionally, the BBC has pledged to “undertake a full audit of expenditure” for the film.

Shortly after the deadly October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, the BBC was forced to remove six of its reporters over their pro-Hamas social media posts. BBC News Arabic reporters, including those reporting out of Egypt and Lebanon, appeared to back the Hamas terrorist group or criticize the Jewish state in posts they either tweeted or liked. One reporter liked a message that appeared to describe Hamas terrorists as “freedom fighters.”

Image by Matt Cornock.

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The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is admitting a documentary on Gaza it aired was narrated by the son of a senior leader in the Hamas terrorist group, which perpetrated the barbaric October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel. Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone is narrated by Abdullah al-Yazouri, the son of Hamas's Deputy Agriculture Minister Ayman al-Yazouri. It cost the BBC over £400,000 (~$503,000) to develop and was produced by Hoyo Films. show more
February 28, 2025
Media

Washington Post Shake-Up by Bezos Sparks Another Wave of Cancellations.

The Washington Post has seen more than 75,000 digital subscription cancellations since billionaire owner Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday that the newspaper’s editorial page would focus on promoting “personal liberties and free markets.” According to sources, Opinion Editor David Shipley resigned immediately after the announcement, having unsuccessfully attempted to convince Bezos to abandon the plan.

For the second time in less than six months, The Washington Post has experienced a significant exodus of subscribers as the newspaper continues to suffer revenue issues. In October, over 300,000 digital readers canceled their subscriptions after Bezos allegedly blocked the newspaper’s editorial board from endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.

Over the past two years, the newspaper has undergone several rounds of layoffs. In November 2023, The Washington Post saw over 100 employees depart through layoffs and buyouts as it struggled to retain readership. Meanwhile, Bezos indicated further layoffs will likely be necessary in January of this year. Over the course of 2024, The Washington Post lost an estimated $100 million in revenue.

According to Bezos, the shift in editorial agenda is part of a larger effort to restore public trust in the nearly 150-year-old publication. In an editorial published last October, Bezos argued: “Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.”

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The Washington Post has seen more than 75,000 digital subscription cancellations since billionaire owner Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday that the newspaper's editorial page would focus on promoting “personal liberties and free markets.” According to sources, Opinion Editor David Shipley resigned immediately after the announcement, having unsuccessfully attempted to convince Bezos to abandon the plan. show more
February 27, 2025
Media
Politics

Jake Tapper Admits Biden’s Mental Decline and Media Cover-Up — After Repeatedly Denying It.

CNN’s Jake Tapper is claiming he has been covering former President Joe Biden‘s cognitive decline “for years” as he hawks a new book titled Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Decision to Run Again, based on interviews with many Democratic Party insiders.

Despite once claiming that “Joe Biden has dementia” was a narrative pushed by “the Russians,” Tapper is now denouncing Biden’s decision to seek reelection. Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson, of Axios, now say that Biden’s declining faculties were hidden from the public, with Tapper claiming CNN viewers “know” he has “been covering the concerns about President Biden’s age and health for years.” However, he was, in fact, one of Biden’s top apologists.

In a 2020 interview with Lara Trump, for instance, Tapper slammed Lara Trump for highlighting Biden’s mental deterioration, alleging she was “mocking” people with stutters—including “little kids”—and that she had “no standing” to “diagnose” the elderly Democrat.

The book comes as Tapper faces legal challenges. He was central to a defamation case in which Navy veteran Zachary Young accused CNN of misrepresenting him as an “illegal profiteer” during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. CNN was ordered to compensate Young with $5 million in damages.

Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.

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CNN's Jake Tapper is claiming he has been covering former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline "for years" as he hawks a new book titled Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Decision to Run Again, based on interviews with many Democratic Party insiders. show more