Very, very bad stuff coming from leading right-wingers
Senior Fellow at @mmfa. Views expressed here my own. Husband of @alyssarosenberg. Dad. Not the former GOP congressman. Find me here: http://bio.site/mattgertz
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Very, very bad stuff coming from leading right-wingers
We say the cliches because they are true: Political violence consumes everything it touches. We cannot have a liberal democracy when people try to end political disagreements with bullets. I hope Charlie Kirk survives, for all our sakes.
Would pretending you think Trump's sig was forged be more or less humiliating than condemning those who link autism and vaccines and then deciding its fine and you're not the anti-science party because the other one "gave us Rachel Levine"? Tough call! www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/gre...
Me watching for which Fox News hosts eat the Epstein signature shit sandwich tonight.
If Weinstein doesn’t take up the right’s cause, or if he does but is then overruled by Paramount’s corporate leadership, that will trigger a new round of right-wing denunciations -- and perhaps regulatory retaliation. Much more here: www.mediamatters.org/cbs/how-cbs-...
It's also easy to imagine right-wing operatives scrutinizing CBS employees and demanding Weinstein get them fired.
With CBS News, there will now be new steps: The right-wing apparatus will try to get their fellow-traveler ombudsman to take action against the network.
The current path of smear campaign involves Trump attacking news outlets to undermine trust in their coverage, right-wing media piling on the vitriol, and administration officials corruptly leveraging their positions to cudgel them into line.
Kenneth R. Weinstein is a Donald Trump supporter and right-wing think-tanker with no newsroom experience who often criticizes the news media’s purported liberal bias. He's been appointed to scrutinize CBS coverage for a reason, and its not because he's a "fair arbiter."
CBS News' parent company promised to change the network's content to be more palatable to the Trump administration. That's the context for the appointment of its Trumpy new ombudsman.
What’s happening to CBS News is neither complicated nor subtle. www.mediamatters.org/cbs/how-cbs-...
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld once offered a stirring condemnation of Trump's "antiscience," "stupid," "deadly," and "destructive" linkage of autism to vaccines. These days he's caping for the "open-minded" RFK Jr. against his purportedly “unglued” critics. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/gre...
No one has more contempt for the intelligence of Republican voters than Republican politicians.
The lie factory will continue manufacturing lies for another generation, deliberately deceiving audiences in service of authoritarian politics on three continents.
I don't think I quite follow Ezra Klein's argument -- he's not sure that shutting down the government is the right thing to do and also it’s complicity with authoritarianism not to do it and also he hopes Dem leaders have a “better plan” and also if they do “nothing” they should be replaced?
Throwing millions of Americans off health insurance and raising its cost for millions more seems unlikely to improve the threat posed by people with untreated, serious mental health issues on public transit but that's what Republicans are doing.
There is no shortage of coverage of brutal murders in national news outlets when those murders occur on public transit in NYC (these are all about the same case).
A lot of conservatives are very angrily posting about how a news event that took place in New York City got more attention than one that took place in Charlotte...
Before Speaker Mike Johnson's office backpedaled from his wild claim that Trump was an FBI informant who took down Jeffrey Epstein, Benny Johnson claimed it proved Trump is "the undisputed hero of the Epstein saga" and "the key force in bringing Epstein down."
So absurd: Fox News is spinning RFK's epic implosion in the Senate by downplaying the riticism from *Republicans* and by portraying RFK as *pro* vaccine. On the pod, @mattgertz.bsky.social smartly explains that this shows Fox knows RFK is a major problem for Trump: newrepublic.com/article/2000...
Media Matters' @mattgertz.bsky.social tells The New Republic's @gregsargent.bsky.social how RFK Jr's anti-vax crusade has become a massive liability for Trump & the propaganda outlets (see Fox) that are attempting to cover the president's HHS secretary, while covering-up his many missteps & lies.
If the jobs picture is actually much better than the numbers indicate, either because they will be revised up or been sabotaged, then what's the argument for cutting interest rates the way Trump is demanding?
Chavez-DeRemer on Fox Business: "Jerome Powell should be embarrassed by this report because he has not done his job. The president was right in 2016 and the presidents is right now... He needs to lower that interest rate."
Hassett on Fox News: With August seasonal, BLS typically has to "revise up the number by around almost 70,000 jobs... We expect this number will be revised up. That's been the pattern."
Responding to the bad jobs numbers in the 9 a.m. hour: Kevin Hassett told Fox News that it is a function of survey response rates and will be revised upward. Lori Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business that bad numbers are Jerome Powell's fault for not cutting rates. Can't be both!
The questions for 2026 are, can Dems win the pre-election and election and stand to take one or both houses of Congress? If they do, does Trump care enough to activate a 2020-style post-election push? And if he does, can the Dems defeat it and actually take power?
Trump won the 2024 election outright, and his party carried both houses of Congress, so the post-election phase was moot.
Since then, he's purged the Republican Party of the people who might have a problem with overturning an election. His AG and Secretary of Defense are loyalists with no independent power base or reputation. The Speaker of the House was a key figure in his 2020 effort.
In 2020, Trump claimed he won the election on Election Night but had been the victim of voter fraud, then spent months trying to get local, state, and federal officials to overturn the results. Thanks in no small part to Republicans who refused to play along, his plot failed.
Most of the focus is on the election phase. The pre-election phase is getting a lot of attention now with Trump's comments about mail-in votes and gerrymandering. But the post-election phase seems under-examined.
There are three levels to the 2026 midterms. Pre-election: Laws, regs, and enforcement shape who votes and how much their votes can impact the election. Election: Which candidate the voters select. Post-election: Votes are counted, certified, and candidates take office.
It appears any effort to inform Republican voters about developments in the Epstein story will run up against the reality that their preferred news providers have dropped the story at Trump’s insistence. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/don...
I'm calling it -- Donald Trump killed the Epstein story on the right. Prominent MAGA media figures ignored a wave of Epstein news on Tuesday, signaling that Trump’s pressure campaign has paid off with their silence — even as (or, perhaps, because) his own corrupt involvement in the story has grown.
The president’s favorite TV show is helping to ease the country onto a glide path toward Trump’s authoritarian goal of putting troops on the ground in more U.S. cities. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...
Here's a paragraph about one of the most powerful figures in right-wing media, someone with a huge following and the ear of the White House. Seems like a bad situation. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/b...
My most unpopular opinions are that George W. Bush was president in 2008 and Donald J. Trump was president in 2020.
I would simply not have voted to confirm the guy who hauled a bear carcass down from upstate New York and left it in Central Park.
There's not really a good solution once Senate Republicans abdicate their responsibility to vote down Trump's most lunatic nominees.
Plenty of reporters surely wanted to speak to RFK Jr. after he pushed out the CDC director then watched other agency leaders leave. But it was the co-hosts of Fox & Friends that got the opportunity, and it’s obvious why. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...
Pirro’s strategy played better in a Fox News greenroom than in a D.C. courtroom. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fai...
HE WORE SHORTS???
Even Jesse Watters can tell Trump is trying to fire Fed governor Cook over a pretext www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/eve...
Hard to believe that Jerome Powell failing to publicly defend the Federal Reserve's independence immediately led to President Trump citing a pretext to claim he had fired one of the Fed governors.
Media moguls can get off Trump's shit list -- all they have to do is bend the knee and assure the admin they won't cause trouble. www.mediamatters.org/cbs/trump-ca...
Trump on NBC and ABC: "FAKE NEWS" that run too many "BAD STORIES" about him, should lose licenses or have to pay millions to keep them. Trump on CBS: Just bought by "great man" who is "going to do the right thing with it."
1) ABC/NBC should lose license or pay hefty fees because their reporting is mean to him. 2) MD should maybe lose bridge repair funds because Wes Moore was mean to him. 3) The feds should investigate Chris Christie for Bridgegate because he was mean to him.
Really feels like the bare minimum for DC's elected representative in Congress should be "able to appear in public when the city is taken over by the feds."
Kash Patel is refocussing FBI operations away from "complicated cases touching on financial fraud, public corruption and national security" -- unless the alleged perpetrator is on his "enemies list."
"Conservatives, from the bottom of the pyramid to the top, have a constant need to find outraged liberals... A policy’s success is judged not by its material impact on the world but by how many Democrats wail and moan about it." www.infinitescroll.us/p/in-search-...
Earlier on he was watching Fox Business, chyron matches quote. Left, Mornings with Maria, 6:04 a.m. Right, Trump, 6:17 a.m.
The president appears to have done some rage-watching of MSNBC. Left, Morning Joe, 7:14 am Lemire says he spoke to John Bolton "who says that Putin has already won." Right, Trump, 7:44 a.m.
“For months now, Trump’s MAGA allies have been urging him to take a firmer hand over Washington D.C., but the tipping point for him to act was apparently an overwrought segment on his favorite TV channel," @mattgertz.bsky.social told me today. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
8. Trump is for surging federal forces but against increasing the size of the DC police force, which would a longer-term solution but one over which he is not in charge. 9. There's a real problem, albeit not at the scale he says, but his solutions are undercooked.
5. There's been little explanation of how the federal takeover of the police force is supposed to improve things. 6. Surging federal law enforcement and National Guard can help, but by definition is a short term solution. 7. Trump's team is incompetents who will likely screw up.
1. DC murders and other violent crimes are way down from the recent peak (2023). 2. They are way up from the recent low (2011-14). 3. Point 1 is evidence against Trump's claim of an emergency requiring a federal takeover. 4. Point 2 is evidence for more work to lower DC crime.
A hotter climate is going to result in more people wanting access to air conditioning, and France's ability to rely on nuclear power means the emissions impact should be low. Demanding misery as the price for imposing the cordon sanitaire seems unwise...
The president is watching television. Left, Fox & Friends, 6:42 a.m. Right, Trump, 7:11 a.m.
Five minutes after Maria Bartiromo covered Tom Cotton's criticism of Intel's CEO's "potential ties to communist China," President Trump called for the CEO's removal. Left, Fox Business, 7:34 a.m. Right, Trump, 7:39 a.m.
Fox last week through Friday at noon: 85 minutes talking about Sydney Sweeney, 3 minutes talking about Epstein www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...
Fox News is running an Anything But Epstein strategy which means Sydney Sweeney Discourse is on Day 7 on its airwaves.
They folded. We're fighting. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/u...
Fox seems committed to burying the story that one of the network's former hosts shared classified information as a member of the Trump administration. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...
Fox News has **confirmed** reports from other outlets that the Pentagon’s watchdog has learned information in his Signal texts came from a classified email. This 40-second headline read is the entirety of the network's coverage of the story.
It's getting really bad out there. www.mediamatters.org/mollie-hemin...
Donald Trump seems to recognize that one thing that brings them together is their shared hatred of Democrats like Obama and the free press, and he’s been acting accordingly. And that means that six months into his presidency we’re already in very dangerous territory.
Trump also tried to leverage federal regulatory authority to punish news outlets in his first administration. The difference this term is the unwillingness of corporate owners to fight winnable cases in court.
Trump wants to reunify his base, which is mad about his handling of the Epstein case, and his solution is giving them a familiar common enemy. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tru...
Read the report here: www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
The GOP-led Senate Select Intelligence Committee in 2020 on the IC report at the heart of the Gabbard/Trump attacks on Obama: An "impressive accomplishment," "no politically motivated pressure," “reflects proper analytic tradecraft,” "provides a proper representation of the intelligence."
Getting pretty close to an "Epstein and Maxwell have been misjudged" argument too...
Video here: www.mediamatters.org/greg-kelly/n...
Gross stuff here -- Newsmax host Greg Kelly is attacking @jkbjournalist.bsky.social as a "fake news reporter" who "wanted to take down Trump" in defense of Alex Acosta, who gave Epstein his sweetheart plea agreement (as she detailed) and is now on Newsmax board. www.mediamatters.org/greg-kelly/n...
Trump’s best hope of keeping his supporters happy may very well be increasing the scale and tempo of his authoritarian attacks — and that means there will be more to come in the months ahead. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tru...
Donald Trump's strategy of unifying his base by floating lies which provide them with a familiar common enemy is having success on Fox. Monday mentions on Fox News live programming: "Obama": 117 "Epstein": 2
The Journal and Obama attacks may only be the beginning. Trump’s best hope of keeping his supporters happy may very well be increasing the scale and tempo of his authoritarian attacks — and that means there will be more to come in the months ahead. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tru...
Mentions on live Fox News programming this Saturday and Sunday: Epstein: 63 Obama: 129
So sorry to hear this, I hope you land on your feet.
Fox's coverage through 4 p.m. today: Biden: 42 mentions Epstein: 4 (airing Trump's gaggle and responding to it in the 1 pm hour)
UPDATE for all of Fox News live coverage from July 14 Biden: 158 mentions Epstein: 8 mentions* Trump ordered a stop to the Epstein coverage and Fox's stars obeyed. *Epstein tally includes this example; no mentions before the 6 p.m. ET hour:
UPDATE through Fox News' 4 p.m. hour: Biden: 85 mentions Epstein: STILL ZERO Fox is following Trump's marching orders and shutting up about the story currently consuming the MAGA movement. bsky.app/profile/did:... ·
In February, Pam Bondi and her Fox allies said the deep state was hiding the Epstein files from her. Now, Trump says the deep state "created" the files. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tru...
The total blackout of the story came after Trump told his allies to stop talking about the "Epstein Files," which he claimed were "created" by the deep state, contradicting their past narrative. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tru...
Fox News live mentions today as of noon ET: Biden: 46 Epstein: ZERO
If you're wondering what happened to Alex Acosta, who oversaw Jeffrey Epstein's sweetheart plea deal and was labor secretary in Trump's first term, he recently joined the board of the Trumpist media outlet Newsmax. www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/news...
Read the whole thing: www.mediamatters.org/lara-trump/p...
And of course, since every Trump story has a corruption angle, she devoted one episode to the subject of cryptocurrency as “digital gold” without disclosing her family’s sizable crypto holdings.
She's also using her show to lay groundwork for a NC-SEN run. Saturday's program featured her visiting storefronts in Wilmington with Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler: mediamatters.org/media/4031263
Chyrons during the show include “Trump admin takes the world stage by storm”; “Blair: Trump’s energy driving White House momentum”; “Sec Hegseth: Trump puts Americans first”; and “Trump’s vision to 'restore the republic.’"
Lara Trump's guests say they are “so blessed” to have the “great honor” of serving in the administration of someone they say is a “powerful leader” and “peacemaker in chief” who “shines in a way that no one else in this world ever shines” and whose “instincts are off the charts good.”
Oh put this Gertz piece straight into my veins. I've been recording Lara Trump's show bc she happens to land some pretty major interviews, in terms of top level Trumpworld figures. The most complimentary thing I can say is that she's a better interviewer than Sean Hannity. That's about it
I took a deep dive into Fox News' My View with Lara Trump. Everyone at that network should be embarrassed that they're paying the president's daughter in law to interview his minions about how great he is. www.mediamatters.org/lara-trump/p...
2) But when his administration does anything else (Home Depot raids, Iran strikes, tariffs, Epstein) some faction gets mad. It could lead to a death-by-1000-cuts scenario, but as of yet, the vibe is more, "If only the tsar knew what his advisers were doing!"
1) In general, the way I think about these flare-ups is that Trump united a disparate right-wing media coalition that doesn't agree on much beyond 1) they hate the left and 2) they think Trump will hurt the left. When Trump is doing that, they're content.
My thoughts on the Epstein kerfuffle are in the latest from @evanmcs.bsky.social mailchi.mp/notus/how-vu...
I talked with @sarahellison about the facially absurd situation in which a right-wing news outlet is now in business with a company named after and heavily invested in by the president of the United States while regularly reporting about him: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
This is the quote they're pretending to be mad about: “I mean, ‘Superman’ is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Some of the far-right online, particularly the QAnon community, are responding to this DOJ/FBI memo about Jeffrey Epstein reported by Axios by baselessly suggesting that the memo is fake and that even Axios may have made it up.
While the Epstein saga is a bit of a sideshow in the grand scheme of things, what it highlights about the underlying dynamics of the MAGA movement is deeply unsettling. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/mag...
