Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we dig into how Jake Tapper taking on Hasan Piker is making many wonder if the CNN anchor is pandering to his soon-to-be new bosses. Plus, Donald Trump thinks a Bush-era neocon is “Brilliant” and CBS News is doing all white.

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Tapper ‘Auditioning to be CNN’s Dokoupil’

Three weeks after drawing the ire of progressives for targeting Zohran Mamdani and his wife for hosting pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, CNN star Jake Tapper is once again under fire for taking aim at a left-wing critic of Israel and painting that person as antisemitic.

In this instance, Tapper’s target is popular progressive streamer Hasan Piker, who has suddenly found himself the focus of a cancellation campaign by centrist groups and right-wing Jewish publications looking to marginalize his influence in upcoming Democratic primaries.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest dispatches from Bari World and the right-wing industrial outrage complex. In today’s edition, I cover how Pete Hegseth has a new favorite network – and it’s not his old stomping grounds, the influence Fox has had on the growing acceptance of a neo-Nazi conspiracy theory, an “idiot” trying to stop the latest Serial podcast, and independent journalism stepping up to the plate on long-form reporting.

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Hegseth’s New Favorite Channel

Ever since news outlets – including Fox and Newsmax – were nearly unanimous in rejecting the Pentagon’s loyalty pledge last fall, which prompted dozens of journalists to walk out en masse, these organizations have refused to bring on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for interviews.

All but one, that is.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest dispatches from Bari World and the right-wing industrial outrage complex. In tonight’s edition, I’ve got a scoop on Paramount axing a panel discussion about Gaza from the perspective of Arab Americans. Plus, we look at how the New York Times is “sanewashing” the president’s unhinged ramblings – again; and the ridiculous spin that CBS News is giving Tony Dokoupil’s ratings crash.

Let’s jump in.

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Paramount Canceled Arab-American Gaza Panel at the Last Minute

CBS owner Paramount squashed an internal panel discussion on the Arab-American experience amid the Gaza war that featured designer and prominent pro-Palestine activist Alana Hadid – all while holding multiple pro-Israel sessions, Ragebait has learned.

Among the three separate sessions Paramount held at its annual global Inclusion Week in October 2024 that focused on antisemitism was an in-depth panel by Israeli-flag-waving CBS reporter Jonah Kaplan and featuring pro-Israel self-proclaimed “MAGA lefty” provocateur Batya Ungar-Sargon.

This all occurred just two weeks after Paramount’s owner rallied to the defense of Tony Dokoupil for outrageously painting Ta-Nehisi Coates as a terror-sympathizing extremist over the celebrated author’s sympathetic stance towards Palestine.

Based on my conversations with five former and current Paramount employees, as well as a review of communications and documents that I obtained, I’ve learned that the company’s Office of Global Inclusion (OGI) – which has since been disbanded as part of Paramount’s anti-DEI pledge to the Trump administration – nixed the Arab-American discussion on Gaza less than two days before it was scheduled to take place.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we dig into how Sean Hannity and the “Fox News cabinet” helped push the United States into another Middle Eastern quagmire, whether Jake Tapper is already giving future CNN owners the Ellisons what they want, and Bari Weiss losing yet another high-profile journalist from CBS.

Before we hop in, I have one small request! Today is the last day we’re sending ‘Ragebait’ to all Zeteo subscribers. To ensure you get my media scoops every week, make sure you’re signed up to get ‘Ragebait’ by going to ‘manage subscription’ in your Substack account, scrolling down, and toggling the button for ‘Ragebait’ on. And ensure you’re a paid subscriber to get past the paywall!

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Hannity, Trump’s Shadow Chief of Staff, Gets His War

Eight months after Donald Trump boasted that he had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the president launched an illegal war of aggression to “ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.”

With much of the president’s “America First” base warning him against setting off another Middle Eastern conflict, who exactly convinced Trump to take action? Who did Trump turn to in order to justify jumping into this deeply unpopular decision?

Well, look no further than the president’s “Fox News cabinet” and his White House shadow chief of staff – Sean Hannity.

One of cable news’s biggest Iraq War hawks, who has since spent the past few years cheerleading Israel’s war on Gaza, Hannity recently devoted much of his energy to laying the groundwork for a full-scale attack on Iran.

“It’s not surprising that Hannity, who was the network’s biggest cheerleader for the Iraq war, is bloodthirsty for another pointless, disastrous war,” one Fox insider told me. “This is a man who praised waterboarding and volunteered to do it for the troops, only to never follow through on it.”

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A longtime proponent of military action against Iran, the shameless Trump sycophant began making the case for regime change weeks before the president ordered strikes on Iran – insisting it was necessary to stop the country’s nuclear program that Trump had supposedly already destroyed.

While Hannity had previously parroted Trump’s claims that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “are officially dead” and that the regime “has been totally defanged” back in June, he told Iran’s leaders last month that the “clock is now ticking” because they refused to give up their nuclear program.

“I do have a little advice for the radical leaders in Iran,” Hannity declared on his Feb. 18 broadcast. “You may want to get on that plane to Russia sooner than you think – sooner than later. Now would be a good time.”

The full-court press that Hannity and his Fox cohorts were delivering on air obviously had its intended effect on our cable news-obsessed president, based on what Zeteo’s senior political correspondent Asawin “Swin” Suebsaeng has heard from his well-placed Trumpland sources. Let me turn it over to Swin real quick:

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest dispatches from Bari World and the right-wing industrial outrage complex. In tonight’s edition, we take a look at how CBS News is covering the Iran war under the direction of Bari Weiss. Plus, CNN’s resident MAGA defender Scott Jennings is driving his colleagues nuts while kissing up to his future boss; Fox is manufacturing consent for another Middle East war; and Gayle King is going “all in” on Bari.

We’re still sending ‘Ragebait’ to all Zeteo subscribers, but we won’t do so for long. To ensure you get my media scoops every week, make sure you’re signed up to get ‘Ragebait’ by going to ‘manage subscription’ in your Substack account, scrolling down, and toggling the button for ‘Ragebait’ on. And ensure you’re a paid subscriber to get past the paywall! Let’s jump in.

‘Bari’s Hardline Zionist Wet Dream’

“Buckle up. Propaganda-palooza,” one CBS News staffer told me after the network announced that it had deployed Tony Dokoupil to the Middle East this week to anchor ‘CBS Evening News’ as Donald Trump’s aggressive war of choice with Iran escalated.

The fact of the matter, though, is that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss had made sure that would be the case well before Dokoupil – the pro-Israeli talking head she installed to lead the network’s flagship nightly news broadcast – made his way to Tel Aviv.

“This is Bari’s hardline Zionist wet dream come true,” a CBS News insider snarked to Zeteo.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest dispatches from Bari World and the right-wing industrial outrage complex. In tonight’s edition, we profile the newest CBS News correspondent and what he has in common with Bari Weiss, Sean Hannity’s engagement with a bit of stolen valor, Fox doing its level best to spin Trump’s long and boring State of the Union, and what CBS staffers think about the Peter Attia saga.

For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be sending ‘Ragebait’ to all Zeteo subscribers. But to ensure you get my media scoops every week, make sure you’re signed up to get ‘Ragebait’ by going to ‘manage subscription’ in your Substack account, scrolling down, and toggling the button for ‘Ragebait’ on. And ensure you’re a paid subscriber to get past the paywall! Let’s jump in.

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The ‘We Love Israel’ Network

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I am delighted to welcome Justin Baragona and his ‘Ragebait’ media newsletter back to Zeteo, and to your inboxes, this time on a weekly basis. For those who aren’t familiar, Justin was with Zeteo before decamping for The Independent, where he was a scoop machine on all sorts of media stories - but especially CBS and Bari Weiss and Donald Trump stories. Justin’s back with us now, and you can catch his exclusive reporting and analysis every Wednesday evening.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be sending ‘Ragebait’ to all Zeteo subscribers. But to ensure you get Justin’s media scoops every week, make sure you’re signed up to get ‘Ragebait’ by going to ‘manage subscription’ in your Substack account, scrolling down, and toggling the button for ‘Ragebait’ on. Oh, and please make sure you’re a paid Zeteo subscriber so you can read past the paywall and support independent journalism!

-Mehdi

Behind the Scenes of Bari Weiss’s Blunder

Months after Bari Weiss desperately courted Anderson Cooper to be the face of ‘CBS Evening News,’ Cooper essentially gave the anti-woke CBS News editor-in-chief the middle finger as he decided to ditch his 20-year run as a ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent.

“It really has to sting for Bari,” a senior CBS News staffer told ‘Ragebait.’ “The person she wanted for the Evening News anchor chair is choosing to leave CBS altogether because of her.”

In fact, according to the same staffer, Cooper’s decision not to return to ‘60 Minutes’ after this season ends was akin to “a ‘fuck you’ to Bari.”

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A CNN mainstay who recently re-upped his contract with the cable news network, Cooper declined to accept CBS News’s latest renewal offer to continue serving as a correspondent for the network’s venerable newsmagazine, as first reported by Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright.

Though both CBS News and Cooper said all the right things in their official statements on his departure, with the anchor citing his work-life balance and commitments to CNN as the driving force behind his decision while CBS said “60 Minutes will be here if he ever wants to return,” it was clear that something else was at play to cause him to tell the Tiffany Network sayonara.

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Republicans and right-wing media, which had grown increasingly confident of a Donald Trump victory in recent weeks, found themselves back on their heels following a series of stunningly racist “jokes” made by their MAGA cohorts. Making matters worse for the right, these purposely offensive and dehumanizing swipes have only served to strengthen the accusations that Trump and his allies are embracing fascism.

In the wake of right-wing podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe’s much-denounced warm-up speech at Trump’s Madison Square Garden (MSG), which featured the “Kill Tony” star calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” Mehdi found himself face-to-face with conservative provocateur Ryan Girdusky on Monday night. 

Sharing a panel on CNN’s ‘NewsNight,’ Mehdi and Girdusky were presented the opportunity to talk about the MSG rally, which has been widely condemned over its dark tone and incendiary rhetoric towards women, minorities, and immigrants. Noting the intense backlash to the rally, Mehdi began to point out that conservatives shouldn’t act like Nazis if they didn’t want to be called that.

Gidursky reacted by asserting that Mehdi had been “called an antisemite more than anyone at this table,” prompting the Zeteo founder to say he'd grown used to that because he’s “a supporter of the Palestinians.” At that point, things went completely off the rails in the worst possible way.

“Well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” Girdusky sneered, making an obvious reference to the Israeli operation that killed dozens, including children, when hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah exploded. “Did you just say I should die?” Mehdi reacted. “Did you just say I should be killed live on CNN?!”

Needless to say, Girdusky’s remarks caused others at the table to denounce him – especially when he offered up an insincere apology, claiming he thought Mehdi was expressing his support for Hamas. “Ryan, that is completely out of pocket,” host Abby Phillip exclaimed while Girdusky whined that he “apologized” already.

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During the commercial break, Girdusky was removed from the panel, and Mehdi left on his own accord. “Never, in my 25 years as a journalist and 15 years of doing live TV, have I been so stunned by what was said to me that I had to walk off set in the middle of a live show, as I did on Monday night,” Mehdi said in a video response on Wednesday, adding that Girdusky’s line “wasn’t a joke, and that he almost certainly came pre-prepared with, thinking he could get away with it on live national television. That’s how bold these MAGA Republicans have become with their racism…with the help of some in our media who have just happily platformed it.”

Phillip, on the night, later told viewers that “there is a line that was crossed there, and it’s not acceptable to me.” The network also quickly released a statement saying that Girdusky would no longer be booked on CNN programming.

“There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air,” the network stated Monday night. “Ryan Girdusky will not be welcomed back at our network.”

Girdusky, who had become a semi-regular fixture on Phillip’s panels in recent weeks, took to social media to complain that he was kicked to the curb by CNN for merely joking. “Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke. I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for,” he tweeted.

He also wrote a lengthy screed on his Substack on Tuesday, portraying his CNN ban as the end result of cancel culture and liberal bias pushed by the mainstream media. His blog also included this howler of a line: “Within minutes of leaving the set, everyone I knew, including plenty of liberals, reached out to see if I was okay.” Remember, this is the man who implied his fellow panelist was a terrorist who deserved to be blown up.

Additionally, Girdusky misrepresented how the exchange between him and Mehdi went, chalking his “beeper” comment as a “quick joke,” all while insisting he had no idea who Mehdi was until this week. (This is obviously not true since he’s regularly tweeted at or about Mehdi over the years.)

“I’m not a victim: I said what I said. I own it,” Girdusky wrote at the end of his post protraying himself as a victim. 

MAGA Media Unsurprisingly Downplays Racist ‘Jokes’

Getting beyond Girdusky’s self-pitying for a minute, the thing that really stands out here is his continued insistence that he is merely guilty of telling an innocent little joke, and the outrage over his remarks is misplaced. And many of Girdusky’s far-right compatriots have echoed that line, claiming it represents a double standard.

This is similar to how the right has reacted to Hinchcliffe’s remarks amid the firestorm of backlash they’ve caused and the possibility it could turn out more Puerto Rican voters against Trump. While Republicans have sought to distance themselves from the comic, with Trump himself asserting he doesn’t know who he is, conservatives have also defended the comments and even praised them as educational. 

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“Now people know about Puerto Rico having a huge trash problem,” Fox News’ resident “comedian” Greg Gutfeld declared. Hinchliffe himself has also defended his remarks, claiming that his “joke was taken out of context” by Democrats. 

While it is utterly predictable that MAGA media would go out of their way to downplay this racist and violent rhetoric as just attempts at humor, especially with the GOP looking to peel off Latino and Arab-American voters, it does beg another question: why is CNN even platforming someone like Girdusky in the first place?

Not the First Time

CNN clearly hasn't learned its lesson from previous incidents of inviting MAGA flamethrowers on air, only to have to cut ties with them over their unhinged rhetoric.

In 2017, the network severed ties with Jeffrey Lord after he tweeted “Sieg Heil!” at a liberal activist. The following year, the network fired Ed Martin, who was essentially brought on to be Lord’s replacement as CNN’s resident Trump backer. And in 2021, Rick Santorum was let go over incendiary remarks he made about Native Americans. 

On the surface, Girdusky was likely invited by CNN because he is friends with GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance and worked on a super PAC to get Vance elected to the Senate in 2022. Girdusky even said this was the key factor in his Substack piece. 

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He also founded the 1776 Project PAC, which has devoted itself to pushing school boards to the right. Therefore, the network likely saw him as someone who could present a pro-Trump perspective and seemed plugged into the campaign – especially with CNN primetime leaning more toward partisan panel discussions as the election approaches.

Meanwhile, as independent journalist Amanda Moore reported on Tuesday, Girdusky isn’t just a run-of-the-mill Republican. Besides his 1776 Project having ties to white nationalists, Girdusky himself once wrote for Alternative Right, a now-defunct website run by notorious white supremacist Richard Spencer, per Moore. At the time of Girdusky’s contributions, Alternative Right also listed Peter Brimelow as a contributing editor, who would later found the white nationalist group VDARE. 

Furthermore, as The Washington Post noted, Girdusky has also contributed to The American Conservative, which was founded by ‘paleoconservative’ Pat Buchanan. In a 2020 piece for the magazine, Girdusky criticized Trump acolyte Stephen Miller – who was once associated with Spencer and has long promoted white nationalist talking points – for not doing more to implement Trump’s Muslim ban.

But hey, don't you dare suggest they sound like Nazis.

Was the LA Times Non-Endorsement of Harris Really About Gaza?

The fallout continues over the billionaire owners of The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times stepping in and deciding that their newspapers’ editorial boards would not endorse a presidential candidate.

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After he sparked a full-blown crisis at CBS News with his explosive interview of acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates, anchor Tony Dokoupil has spent the past few days reaching out to network colleagues on what some are describing as an “apology tour,” three sources familiar with the matter told me.

Specifically, CBS insiders said, Dokoupil has been speaking to people across the foreign news division who have taken part in the network’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and growing tensions in the Middle East. While the ‘CBS Mornings’ host’s outreach may not represent a full mea culpa on Dokoupil’s part, sources noted, he has been making a concerted effort to engage with his colleagues on this issue. 

“It seems to be dawning on him that maybe he has taken this too far. That it has caused a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people and that he maybe has even hurt his own career, because who's going to see him as an objective observer of anything ever again,” one CBS employee said.

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Noting that the anchor has gotten a list of people involved in coverage of the region, another insider said that some of the folks Dokoupil has reached out to “have not been biting their tongues” and are “confronting him directly” about his biased editorializing. Two sources also pointed out that during one of these conversations, Dokoupil was directly told that he basically sounds “like an IDF spokesperson” during his segments. An additional staffer said that Dokoupil had called to apologize to some foreign correspondents for potentially putting them in danger with his pro-Israel rhetoric while they were reporting from the front lines of the war. 

Of course, this has all come in the aftermath of Dokoupil’s aggressive Sept. 30 sitdown with Coates that sparked controversy after the CBS host all but accused The Message author of being an antisemitic terrorist. CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and head of news gathering Adrienne Roark eventually addressed the matter a week later, finding that Dokoupil had violated the network’s editorial standards with the way he conducted the interview. (Dokoupil himself admitted to defying standards and practices while defending his tone and “tough” questions.) 

CBS News declined to comment. 

Execs In Trouble?

Meanwhile, McMahon – who has been in the job for barely a year – has suddenly found herself under fire over her handling of this whole affair, especially amid the groundswell of criticism from both the right-wing press and legacy media folks who are largely supportive of Israel. (The recent kerfuffle over ‘60 Minutes’ editing part of an answer from Kamala Harris hasn’t helped matters.)

Shari Redstone, head of CBS parent Paramount Global, publicly sided with Dokoupil last week, saying he did a “great job” by “asking tough questions” and didn’t violate editorial standards. She claimed CBS News management “made a mistake” in handling matters. She also privately called Dokoupil to praise him and had dinner with him this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. But following Redstone’s complaints, Paramount Global co-CEO and CBS President George Cheeks made a point of backing the news leadership team. Skydance did not respond to a request for comment.

Redstone’s fiery defense of Dokoupil and Paramount’s pending sale to Skydance, which is run by movie producer David Ellison, has led to speculation that McMahon and other CBS News executives could be in trouble. A CBS insider, meanwhile, noted that many within the CBS newsroom are perturbed by recent reports that Redstone – a fervent philanthropic supporter of pro-Israeli causes – has pushed for a more conservative and pro-Israeli bent in the network’s news coverage.

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The New York Post, for instance, reported that Ellison’s dad Larry, a pal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is extremely unhappy. “They’re thinking about blowing the place up,” according to one of the Post’s sources. Our sources, however, noted that Redstone is selling her stake while Cheeks will probably stay as head of CBS, adding that it’s highly likely Cheeks ran his statement of support for McMahon and Roark by his soon-to-be Skydance bosses before releasing it. 

According to Puck, McMahon is set to meet with her soon-to-be boss, David Ellison (along with RedBird’s Jeff Shell), later this week. Two network sources told me that not only is there broad support for McMahon throughout CBS News, but within Paramount and Skydance as well. 

Though McMahon has been receiving a lot of external flack over the way this has all gone down, multiple sources told me that she continues to draw quite a bit of support from the rank-and-file in the CBS newsroom. While Dokoupil has a small but vocal group of defenders and acolytes at the network, notably justice correspondent Jan Crawford, most staffers back McMahon and Roark for addressing the situation.

Early Complaints Ignored 

One question that has gone unanswered is why McMahon didn’t address this situation with Dokoupil earlier.

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Elon Musk is, for lack of a better term, full of shit.

When the conspiratorial tech mogul purchased X (then Twitter) in 2022, he promised to run the social media site as a “free speech absolutist.” Musk, who was highly critical at the time of the platform’s temporary restriction of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story just ahead of the 2020 election, suggested similar acts wouldn’t happen under his leadership. 

“Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate,” he fumed at the time.

Musk even launched the so-called Twitter Files to prove that the suppression of the laptop report was part of a government effort to help the Biden campaign. While the investigation never revealed evidence of government interference, his followers were still left with the impression that censorship on behalf of a political candidate or party would be verboten on Musk’s X. 

Well, the joke’s on them.

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Hours after sharing his newsletter that contained the Trump campaign’s purported vetting document of JD Vance, investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein was banned from X. The 271-page dossier is apparently the same one that an anonymous source provided to several mainstream media outlets – which all passed on it – and is supposedly connected to Iran’s hack of the Trump campaign. (We won’t even get into the whole double standard of refusing to report on these hacked materials after the feeding frenzy we witnessed in 2016 after WikiLeaks released stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s team.)

In a rare press statement, an X spokesperson told me that Klippenstein was only “temporarily suspended for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information,” including Vance's home address and partial Social Security number. The spokesperson added Klippenstein wasn’t punished for posting the document “as a whole” since the company ultimately got rid of its “hacked materials” policy following blowback from its handling of the laptop story.

“Two-Step Dance”

A full-throated Trump supporter, Musk called the publication of the document “one of the most egregious, evil doxxing actions we’ve ever seen,” while suggesting Klippenstein had put Vance’s children’s lives in danger. In reality, anyone can easily find Vance’s home address and contact information online, and the dossier was compiled from “readily available and relevant electronic and online records,” according to the document’s authors.

Klippenstein soon revealed on his Substack that, despite what X’s spokespeople were saying, the suspension wasn’t temporary, and his 500,000-follower account had been nuked forever.

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It feels as if Elon Musk, the hopelessly redpilled billionaire with a messiah complex, has been going through a slow-motion mental breakdown for years now. Still, just when you thought he couldn’t stoop any lower, the soon-to-be trillionaire has found new lines to cross, underscoring how dangerous and treacherous he’s become.

Hours after the Secret Service thwarted an apparent attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, Musk took to his social media site to ponder why “no one is even trying to assassinate” President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.

The post immediately sparked outrage as many interpreted it as a call to murder Harris and Biden, prompting the edgelord to eventually delete the incendiary post while indicating it was all just a misunderstood joke. Of course, by the time Musk took down the tweet, it had already been viewed over 30 million times and racked up tens of thousands of retweets.

This is no mere isolated incident. Musk, who bought Twitter (now X) in 2022, has transformed the social media platform into his own personal megaphone to inject accelerationist and reactionary rhetoric into the public discourse, all in service of Trump and the MAGA agenda. (Musk has become a close ally of Trump, who wants his “friend” to lead a “government efficiency commission” should he win re-election, and is aggressively backing the former president’s campaign.) 

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Just in the past few weeks, for instance, Musk declared “civil war is inevitable” in the United Kingdom amid anti-Muslim riots in that country that were incited by literal fake news, promoted a “very interesting” Tucker Carlson interview with a pro-Hitler historian who whitewashed the Holocaust, offered to impregnate Taylor Swift after the pop superstar endorsed Harris, and jumped on board the Haitian pet-eating hoax.

National Security Risk

Unlike other right-wing provocateurs and influencers, however, Musk is deeply ingrained in America’s national security apparatus. Besides being the “Chief Twit,” Musk holds significant defense contracts through his other tech companies – SpaceX and Starlink – suggesting that the US government may make him privy to confidential information – even as he’s potentially threatening the current president and the possible next commander-in-chief.

That could increasingly make him a national security risk, experts warn.

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In a recent campaign speech, one of the two presidential nominees babbled incoherently about how “some people don’t eat bacon anymore” because of the “horrible energy” created by wind. “They want wind all over the place. When it doesn't blow, we have a problem,” the candidate added.

The day before, the same candidate lost his train of thought while ranting about his opponent having “destroyed” San Francisco, bizarrely rambling about how much money he had lost and how he had been treated worse than Abraham Lincoln. At no point was there even a hint of a cogent thought.

In the midst of these ever-increasing moments of garbled nonsense, the New York Times published a piece parroting the candidate’s latest excuse for repeatedly “meandering” through his speeches and bouncing from topic to topic with no sense of rhyme or reason.

“In its disjointed way, it did all sort of seem to wend back to why he thinks he should be president again,” the Times reported. A week prior, the paper covered a series of the nominee’s unhinged remarks by merely noting the candidate’s “carefully scripted week kept veering off script.”

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While it was just six weeks ago that another presumptive nominee was forced out of the race due to concerns about his advanced age and declining mental acuity, the mainstream media no longer seems all that interested in the other party’s 78-year-old candidate sundowning before our very eyes.

As has been the case since he first rode down that golden escalator nearly a decade ago, Donald Trump continues to be graded on a curve by our national media. And it hasn’t been lost on media critics and progressive journalists that now that Joe Biden, who is just three years older than Trump, has dropped out of the race, the press is seemingly looking the other way when it comes to the Republican nominee’s obvious struggles.

“Historians will scratch their heads about 2024, in which 1 candidate was forced to quit the race for being old & having a bad debate while the other candidate said mad, rambling stuff like this & not only stayed in the race but didn’t get pressured to step aside by the media,” Mehdi tweeted last week, referencing Trump’s “bacon” remarks. 

Outsized Coverage

Needless to say, when it was an 81-year-old Biden going head-to-head against Trump, the mainstream media couldn’t stop fixating on the Democrat’s age and cognitive decline. Even before Biden’s disastrous debate performance, five of the top US newspapers had published 10 times as many articles focusing just on Biden’s age as opposed to those solely about Trump’s. 

Of course, after Biden’s feeble showing at the June 27 debate, the floodgates fully opened. Several major papers’ editorial boards, including the New York Times, called on Biden to drop out. By one count, the Times published an eye-popping 192 news and opinion pieces about Biden’s age in the first week after the debate, compared to just 92 stories about Trump in general. 

This included a four-bylined investigation on how Biden’s “lapses appear to have grown more frequent” and how he “is not the same today as he was even when he took office 3½ years ago.” The authors of that piece, White House reporters Peter Baker, David Sanger, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Katie Rogers, have not contributed to any similar articles about Trump’s age-related issues or cognitive decline. (This July 2 piece did briefly note that Trump “has also shown signs of slipping over the years,” adding that “voters have expressed concern about his age as well, but not to the same degree as Mr. Biden’s.”)

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The Washington Post followed the Times’ story into Biden’s frailty with a gargantuan report of its own, this one featuring five different reporters. The July 5 article noted how the president’s lapses had become “more common” and that “he seemed slower and more often loses his train of thought.” The piece also included a brief disclaimer about Trump facing “questions about his acuity” while reiterating that voters were more concerned about Biden’s age than the former president’s.

Additionally, the five authors of the Post’s deep-dive – reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey, Maria Sacchetti, John Hudson, and Dan Diamond – have not collaborated on any comparable pieces about Trump’s age. 

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, published a notorious deep-dive into Biden’s “slipping” performance behind closed doors in early June. Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes, the two authors of the Journal story, have also not written any related articles about Trump’s struggles, though they have written several others about Biden’s age-related issues. Linskey is a White House reporter and Hughes covers Congress for the Journal’s Washington Bureau. 

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To be fair, reporters generally have specific beats, and editors also tend to assign stories. For instance, all of the Times reporters on the Biden age story are assigned to the White House beat and specifically cover the Biden administration.

But these newsrooms have yet to give the same deep-dive coverage of Trump's “slipping” as they did on Biden’s decline. The few stories they have published about Trump's age, meanwhile, have largely soft-peddled concerns about the former president’s mental fitness or framed his struggles as going “off-script.” One WaPo column last month, in fact, described Trump as “surprisingly robust” for his age. “There’s no escaping the fact that Trump still seems a good deal younger than Biden. He appears to be nourished by a bottomless wellspring of rage,” columnist Matt Bai noted.

I asked editors of the Times, Post, Axios, the New Yorker, and the Wall Street Journal – major outlets that provided outsized coverage of Biden's age issue – whether they felt they should focus a similar amount of attention on Trump’s cognitive decline, especially since he’s now facing off against a healthier and younger candidate.

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The scourge of bothsidesism that ushered in President Donald Trump in 2016 continues to plague the mainstream media, if this week is any indication. Addicted to horse-race election coverage, the political press just can’t stop looking for ways to give Trump every single benefit of the doubt, all in an effort to create some supposed level playing field.

Case in point – check out the so-called fact-checkers.

The Washington Post issued a correction on Tuesday after resident fact-checker Glenn Kessler drew a deluge of backlash for insisting there was “no evidence that Trump sent” so-called “love letters” to foreign dictators. Tasked with fact-checking Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention, Kessler’s initial claim came in response to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech in which she said Vice President Kamala Harris “won’t be sending love letters to dictators.”

Clinton’s remarks were an obvious nod to Trump’s repeated boasts about his friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, which included him saying, “We fell in love,” and that Kim “wrote me beautiful letters.” Kessler, however, initially wrote that Clinton was “making a bit of a leap to suggest that Trump has written ‘love letters’ to dictators,” adding that we “do not know what Trump wrote to Kim” or other leaders.

Critics soon took issue with Kessler’s fact-check, calling it “embarrassing” since it is absolutely known what Trump wrote to the brutal North Korean ruler. In fact, Kessler’s own Washington Post colleague, Bob Woodward, gained access to the Trump-Kim letters and wrote about them in his 2020 book. Foreign Policy further reported on the letters in 2021. 

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Amid the continued outcry, WaPo amended Kessler’s article on Tuesday afternoon and added the following editor’s note:

“A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the contents of Donald Trump’s letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were not known. Parts of the letters were revealed in a 2020 book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward, after Trump permitted him to read the letters into his tape recorder at the White House. This article has been corrected.”

Still, it wasn’t the only fact-check from a Post journalist that drew heavy criticism. Reporter Amy Gardner, who worked on the Post’s Pulitzer-winning Jan. 6 reporting, took issue with President Joe Biden noting at the DNC that Trump “says he will refuse to accept the election result if he loses again.” According to Gardner, this is “not true” because the former president “just hasn’t said that he would accept” while adding that “the only way he loses is if the Democrats cheat.” 

Media critic Parker Molloy called it “the worst” type of fact-check, noting that it “does a disservice to readers by obscuring the more significant truth behind a veneer of technical accuracy.”

Political science professor Mark Copelovitch added on social media: “It is not healthy for our democracy that a large swathe of our political media has totally, completely, & utterly lost the plot.”

The Post isn’t the only one whose fact-checkers have found ways to apply this double standard, which provides Trump a wide berth to mislead and lie while pedantically dinging Democrats for taking the truth-averse former president at his word.

During Biden’s speech on Monday night, PolitiFact re-upped a fact-check saying it was “mostly false” that Trump wants to cut Medicare, even though the site outright admitted that Trump repeatedly proposed annual budgets as president to do that very thing. “[I'm] not one to bemoan fact checkers. truly. but what are we doing here?” the Bulwark’s Sam Stein posted on social media in response.

What indeed.

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She Can’t Help Herself

Another day, another nutty Maria Bartiromo conspiracy theory that shows yet again Fox’s willingness to tolerate her dangerous rhetoric in service of Trump, 

Over the weekend, the MAGA-boosting Fox Business anchor once again accepted a third-hand claim in order to accuse Democrats of engaging in a vast election fraud scheme. This time around, rather than entrust a woman who believes she’s a “ghost,” Bartiromo instead turned to the spouse of a friend of a friend to assert that massive swaths of immigrants are illegally registering to vote in Texas.

In a Sunday morning tweet that’s racked up more than 2 million views, Bartiromo wrote:

“From a friend ...

Friend of mine’s wife had to take her 16 yr old son to the DMV this week for a new license. Couldn’t get an online appointment(all full) so went in person and had to go to 3 DMV’s to get something done. First DMV was in Weatherford. Had a massive line of immigrants getting licenses and had a tent and table outside the front door of the DMV registering them to vote! Second one was in Fort Worth with same lines and same Dems out front. Third one was in North Fort Worth had no lines but had same voter registration drive.”

Bartiromo went on to repeatedly mention it on Fox airwaves during interviews with GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Roger Marshall of Kansas, and law enforcement officers this week. During these on-air segments, the Fox star expanded on the story, claiming that these weren’t just “immigrants” but also “illegals,” playing directly into the racist “great replacement” theory that the GOP has embraced in recent years.

Besides changing the details of the text to include illegal immigrants, Bartiromo also claimed on air in an interview with Johnson on Monday that it was her friend who had personally seen this, rather than the “wife of a friend” relaying the story to her pal.

“So, what is going on in terms of illegals voting in this election?” Bartiromo asked Johnson, who said, “Democrats want to make it easy to cheat” because “they want to change the electorate.” 

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Though Bartiromo made no apparent effort to confirm whether the story was true or not, a local GOP chair and newspaper both investigated the claim and found it to be completely bogus. “None of it is true,” Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sgt. William Lockridge told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, adding that the suggestion that non-white Texans obtaining their licenses at the DMV are illegal immigrants is itself “kind of racist.” 

Additionally, Parker County GOP chairman Brady Gray tweeted on Monday night that Bartiromo's allegations were “erroneous.” He added that there had been only two instances of ineligible voters registering in the county in the past 15 years.

As of now, Bartiromo has yet to issue any corrections or updates. It’s also been indicated that the host was merely citing a source and that she never said the story had been confirmed. Additionally, Bartiromo’s tip from her friend’s friend’s wife comes as Republicans have become increasingly focused on the issue of noncitizens voting in recent months, and the New York Times recently published a story about how immigrants are becoming US citizens at the fastest rate in years.

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Needless to say, Bartiromo didn’t address her “kind of racist” thirdhand gossip being debunked on Wednesday morning’s broadcast of ‘Mornings with Maria.’

The right-wing network shrugging off Bartiromo’s irresponsible and shoddy journalism in the service of MAGA propaganda shouldn’t come across as all that surprising. I mean, her 2020 election lies are a large reason why the Murdochs had to shell out nearly a billion dollars to settle Dominion’s defamation case, and she’s directly named in another hefty lawsuit, yet she is still employed as a morning host. 

In fact, she’s faced no repercussions for costing Fox both money and reputational damage, and has seen her standing with the network remain firm. If anything, the message Bartiromo is receiving from Fox is clear – go ahead and do what you want. Even, or especially, if that means helping Trump try to overthrow another election. 

Meanwhile, it appears that Republicans are already taking action based on Bartiromo’s already-debunked claim. On Wednesday afternoon, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – a chief purveyor of the “Great Replacement” theory – announced he is “launching an investigation into reports that organizations in Texas are illegally registering non-citizens to vote.”

Trolling the Troll

Professional MAGA antagonist Jack Posobiec got more than he bargained for when he tried to go undercover during a rally outside the DNC on Monday. Prior to thousands of protesters taking to the streets to call for the end of the war in Gaza, Posobiec donned a Palestinian keffiyeh and walked through Union Park with a camera crew hoping to troll leftists for his alt-right ‘Human Events’ show.

In the end, though, it was the troll who was trolled.

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Donald Trump’s disastrous interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention continues to wreak havoc days after the former president went off the rails and launched a series of racist attacks against his Democratic opponent. Besides titillating MAGA propagandists by fully dragging the presidential campaign into the sewer, Trump’s appearance has also resulted in longstanding members questioning the organization’s leadership and one of the moderators receiving death threats.

On top of that, it was later revealed that Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, one of the co-moderators of the Trump panel, wasn’t even an NABJ member – despite the organization appearing to require other hosts and interviewers to maintain a current membership.

So, how did Faulkner end up being on the panel? Did the Trump campaign request her as a moderator as a term of the former president’s participation? 

These questions and others actually came up during the the NABJ’s annual business meeting on Saturday. “It remains unclear what the qualifications to moderate this panel [are],” CBS Detroit reporter Kyra Azore noted on social media during the meeting. 

That’s because it appears that the NABJ required other moderators and hosts at the convention to hold memberships in order to participate. “You are listed as a moderator, author or interviewer for the following #NABJ24 session,” an email a panel moderator shared with Ragebait read. “This is a friendly reminder that you must be an NABJ member in good standing throughout the convention dates of July 31 - August 4, 2024. Please take a moment to renew or join by Friday, July 12th to retain your moderator, author or interviewer status.” Ragebait has learned that this email was sent to several other hosts and interviewers. The NABJ did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a source familiar with the situation, it was NABJ executive director Drew Berry who first approached Fox News about including Faulkner on the panel, calling the network on July 27 to see if the Fox anchor would be interested in interviewing Trump. At the time, the panel was also supposed to include Scott, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tia Mitchell, and the Washington Post’s Toluse Olorunnipa. 

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It should be noted that the NABJ contacted Fox about Faulkner’s participation shortly after her lengthy and friendly interview with the former president, suggesting that the organization felt that tapping the conservative anchor would help push the Trump team to accept the invitation to this year’s convention. That interview was also taped just hours before the attempt on Trump’s life.

Berry, of course, had to be aware that Faulkner is not currently a member of the NABJ and has not been for some time. In fact, according to the source, Faulkner was also not a member when she was tapped to co-host the NABJ’s Salute to Excellence Awards in 2019.

“Performative, Journalistic Charades”

Even before Trump took the Chicago stage last Wednesday, the mere announcement of his presence at the annual event sparked disagreement and upheaval within the NABJ. Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah stepped down as co-chair of the 2024 convention, later explaining that she “could not be part of the production and promotion of performative, journalistic charades that degrade our communities.” The NABJ also came under fire for initially declining Vice President Kamala Harris’ request to appear at the convention via Zoom as she was unable to make it in person. 

Already steeped in controversy, the former president’s conversation – co-moderated by ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Faulkner – ended up being a full-fledged dumpster fire. Starting an hour late because Trump reportedly threw a tantrum over being fact-checked live, the Republican presidential nominee kicked off the interview by attacking Scott personally for asking why Black voters should trust him considering his hostility towards Black journalists and coziness with far-right extremists. 

Calling it a “nasty question” from a “fake news” reporter, Trump kept lashing out at Scott throughout the interview, even prompting Faulkner to react with an “oh my goodness” over the former president’s barrage of criticism. When he wasn’t grumbling about Scott being “rude” to him, Trump was questioning the vice president’s blackness. Asked whether he would encourage his supporters to stop calling Harris a “DEI hire,” Trump responded by claiming she was misleading the public about her race.

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“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” he exclaimed to gasps. “I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.” Trump would later double down on his racist broadsides against Harris while right-wing media would initially defend the strategy of questioning the vice president’s ethnicity, especially since they’d already been going down that road for a while. “Trump told Kamala, ‘you ain't Black,’” Fox News star Jesse Watters cheered.

Many conservative pundits and GOP lawmakers, however, eventually realized that going down this road would backfire spectacularly and urged the former president to back off. “But the biggest thing the Trump campaign can do is stop talking about what her race is, stop talking about if she’s Indian or Black,” Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren pleaded on Friday. 

Meanwhile, NABJ’s leadership – namely president Ken Lemon and Berry – remains under fire over the way this was all handled. During the organization’s annual business meeting on Saturday, Berry acknowledged that Scott had received death threats following her tense interview with Trump, who continues to publicly attack and call for ABC News to fire her.

Additionally, none of the moderators of the Trump sitdown were from a traditionally Black media outlet, something the NABJ leadership admitted was a “blind spot” during the business meeting. “If we had to do this all over again we’d do Black press and mixed gender” for a Trump panel, Lemon said, according to CBS Detroit reporter Azore. 

The Trump campaign did not respond to Ragebait’s request for comment.

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Walz Come Tumbling Down

What would Chachi do?

In the immediate aftermath of Harris naming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, the conservative media infotainment complex attempted to frame the affable former football coach as a radical “socialist” who will turn the Midwest “into Mogadishu.” At the same time, Trump’s Fox News loyalists struggled to settle on a coherent and effective line of attack on the suddenly ascendant Democratic ticket. 

The denizens of Fox News’ right-wing round table show ‘The Five’ threw everything at Walz to see what stuck just ahead of his first appearance as the veep candidate. “He’s a male Karen with power and a pot belly,” Fox News “comedian” Greg Gutfeld sneered, adding that the Walz-Harris ticket was “the woke Bonnie and Clyde.” Wailing about how Walz is “Minnesota nuts,” Jesse Watters bounced from one right-wing culture war grievance to another in an effort to cast Walz as a liberal boogeyman. “This guy put tampons in boys' bathrooms. Fourth-grade boys’ bathrooms, tampons. He wants CRT taught,” he cried. “He was all about toppling the Columbus statue. This guy changed the flag of the state to look more like Somalia. What is wrong with this guy?!”

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Soon enough, the network’s primetime lineup began hammering Walz for signing a bill that provides menstrual products in public school bathrooms, parroting the online right’s “Tampon Tim” nickname for Walz. On top of that, they also attempted to flip Walz’s viral criticism of the GOP’s weirdness on its head, claiming it was the governor who was actually “pretty weird.” 

In the end, whether it was calling on the FBI to “do a background check” on Walz for visiting China or engaging in gross racist fearmongering by warning the governor was trying to turn America into Somalia, the entire evening of outrage came across as farcical once Watters turned to D-list actor Scott Baio for his thoughts – and his advice on debating the Harris-Walz ticket.

Embarg-Oh No

After finding itself in hot water for breaking a news embargo surrounding the major prisoner swap between Russia and the West, which included the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerhskovich from Russian custody, Bloomberg News responded by firing the lead author of the story and disciplining several other staffers. 

Bloomberg, however, isn’t the only news outlet that jumped the gun. In the case of the other organizations, though, it appears this was largely the result of institutional confusion and communication breakdowns.

Ahead of the prisoner exchange, government officials spoke to reporters from several news organizations about the details of the pending swap, but only under the condition that they would not publish anything until all of the prisoners had made it safely into American custody. This was prior to the 8 am ET briefing on Thursday the White House gave roughly 30 reporters about the swap, which was also included in the embargo agreement. 

While Bloomberg published its “exclusive” story at 7:41 a.m. ET on Thursday morning, which at the time inaccurately said Gershkovich and Paul Whelan had already been released, Fox News ran an on-air news segment eight hours prior that said the wrongly imprisoned journalist would soon be heading home.

“The Wall Street Journal is reporting that its reporter Evan Gershkovich is slated to come back to the United States tomorrow as part of a prisoner exchange. Questioning now whether this is true, this is Jennifer Griffin, the national security correspondent, giving us this information now about Evan Gershkovich,” Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher reported late Wednesday night. A video clip of Gallagher’s report was published on Fox News’ digital news site, only to be quickly taken down. 

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According to three well-placed Fox News sources, this largely stems from Griffin – a well-respected and highly sourced reporter – not being part of the initial group of reporters and management privy to the pending swap. Only a very small group of Fox employees – which included White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich – were in the know about the release on Wednesday night, and this didn’t include Griffin. They tried to keep this on a need-to-know basis across the company until the prisoners were fully out of Russian hands on Thursday morning. 

Griffin, the network’s top national security correspondent, followed up with her sources after global political consultant Ian Bremmer tweeted on Wednesday night about the exchange. (Reuters had also reported on the possibility of a prisoner exchange.) Confirming with a Pentagon official, Griffin emailed the newsroom her guidance, which prompted Gallagher to go to air with his report, in which he incorrectly said the WSJ was reporting about Gershkovich’s release. Very soon after Gallagher’s report, Griffin spoke to Fox News management, who made her aware of the embargo. She then quickly sent out another email to the entire network to hold off on reporting about the pending release.

According to a Fox News source, a primary reason the clip of Gallagher’s report was deleted from the digital site was that the anchor completely botched Griffin’s accurate reporting, claiming it was the Wall Street Journal reporting about the pending release. 

ABC News also was too quick with a video package. During Good Morning America on Thursday morning, the control room ran a pre-produced video package narrated by White House correspondent Mary Bruce at 8:20 a.m. ET that included all the details about the release, along with photos and previous interviews of all the Americans. According to sources at the scene, Bruce – who was on the White House lawn at the time – urgently informed GMA that they ran the package early and began calling for the show’s producers to cut it right away. The control room did indeed dump out of the package before it was finished and anchor Robin Roberts quickly threw it to meteorologist Ginger Zee for a weather report.

A source familiar with the situation noted to Ragebait that the network got out of the package early due to an abundance of caution.

While Fox News and ABC made mistakes in prematurely reporting Gershkovich’s release, White House reporters who spoke to Ragebait said theirs still paled in comparison to Bloomberg's as they “managed to mitigate the problems” that stemmed from trying to keep a lid on it. 

Jennifer Jacobs, the senior Bloomberg reporter who was dismissed because of the story, said in a statement on X that “the idea that I would jeopardize the safety of a fellow reporter is deeply upsetting,” adding that the timing of the story’s publication was out of her hands.

“In reporting the story about Evan’s release, I worked hand in hand with my editors to adhere to editorial standards and guidelines,” Jacobs said. “At no time did I do anything that was knowingly inconsistent with the administration’s embargo or that would put anyone involved at risk.”

Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, meanwhile, has said that the report “could have endangered the negotiated swap that set them free” and was a “clear violation of the editorial standards.” He also noted that he personally wrote letters of apology to the prisoners and “immediately” apologized to his peers at the Wall Street Journal, who said that the main issue was with the initial inaccuracy of the story.

“This was not about a broken embargo,” a Wall Street Journal spokesperson said. “It was a report that Evan had been freed when in fact he had not yet been. We’re happy that Bloomberg corrected it.”

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Newsmax Does the Dew!

According to Newsmax hosts and reporters who spoke with Ragebait, the aggressively MAGA network’s cringeworthy interview with GOP vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance last week at the southern border has caused quite a bit of drama and embarrassment behind the scenes.

Following an extremely rocky rollout as Trump’s running mate that’s been dominated by his past comments about “childless cat ladies” and Democrats painting him as “weird,” Vance traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border last week in hopes of refocusing the attention on immigration. This included him sitting down with Newsmax host Bianca de la Garza with the border fence in the background.

Rather than being seen as a serious discussion about border policies, the sitdown ended up being most noteworthy for the Newsmax anchor awkwardly toasting a Diet Mountain Dew with Vance. Of course, this was a callback to Vance absolutely bombing with a joke about liberals finding the soda “racist” during his first rally as Trump’s running mate, a moment that was highly reminiscent of Jeb Bush’s “please clap” moment. 

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Even before de la Garza – who is vying for a primetime role with the right-wing channel – sat down with Vance, the interview had already sparked issues at Newsmax. Initially, network sources said, top-rated host Rob Schmitt was supposed to conduct the interview, only for the network to remove him in favor of de la Garza – supposedly over the Trump campaign’s request. Schmitt was very unhappy with the decision, according to sources.

Besides Schmitt's anger over losing the assignment, the interview's tone prompted grumblings among the network’s staffers. “There are reporters and hosts at Newsmax who actually care about reporting on the issues surrounding our border who would have taken the interview seriously,” one host said, whole another simply exclaimed: “Totally cringe!!!” While one Newsmax reporter told Ragebait it was an “utter mockery of the border crisis” and “wasn’t the place to be silly,” other staffers noted that the channel’s programming chiefs were also displeased with the results. “After Bianca’s weird interview with Vance he was literally seeing red. I never saw Elliot so outraged,” one employee noted, referencing Newsmax VP of programming Elliot Jacobson. 

Newsmax did not respond to a request for comment.

Watch out for ‘Ragebait’ every other week. I’ll focus on the right-wing outrage-industrial complex and the intersection of our political and media landscapes. Subscribe now before it goes behind a paywall, and send any tips here.

A note from Mehdi….Have you subscribed to Justin Baragona's must-read media newsletter yet? Justin, Zeteo's new media columnist, is a prolific scoop-getter. Plus, understanding how our broken media works - or doesn't work! - is key to understanding how decisions get made by the people in power. Sign up to 'Ragebait' now before it goes behind a paywall.

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Even though the writing had been on the wall for weeks, former President Donald Trump and his MAGA media apparatus were still caught flat-footed and ill-prepared to deal with the specter of a Kamala Harris presidential campaign, all but proving that their chief strategy had just been to hammer “Sleepy Joe” Biden on his age and diminishing fitness for office.

The immediate reaction to Biden’s unprecedented announcement not only reeked of desperation but was also a hodgepodge of incoherence and contradictions.

For instance, amid the mounting pressure campaign from Democrats to convince the president to step aside, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday morning that replacing Biden on the ticket would be “unlawful” and he was considering legal challenges to force him to be the nominee.

Hours later, though, Johnson declared that Biden “must resign the office immediately” because his dropping out showed that “he is not fit to serve as President” – a talking point quickly adopted by other prominent Republicans and right-wing media figures.

“So Republicans are going to sue to keep Biden on the ballot to serve as president for four more years while simultaneously claiming that he should resign his office? That’s totally incoherent, a signal of obvious political desperation,” Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz aptly noted. 

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Adopting the GOP’s flailing response, Fox News reacted by accusing the Democratic Party of disenfranchising voters and subverting democracy itself. “If anybody was afraid that democracy would be upended, we are watching it today,” anchor Harris Faulkner fumed on Sunday. 

“How do Democrats presume to be the defenders of democracy and try to castigate former President Trump as an existential threat to democracy when, in fact, the Democratic Party, for lack of a better word, is usurping democracy?” Faulkner’s colleague, John Roberts, added moments later. (To be fair, Fox News anchor Dana Perino did push back on that narrative, noting that “if almost 80% of Democrats polled say they wanted another nominee in the last four weeks, I do not think they feel disenfranchised.”)

Utterly Unready

It didn’t take long for Fox News to parrot MAGA’s bleatings that Biden’s exit was akin to an insurrection. Trump confidant Sean Hannity described it as an “elitist coup” on Sunday evening, while former Bill O’Reilly lackey Jesse Watters wondered if the president was the victim of a “bloodless coup.” Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law who is also the RNC’s co-chair, told Hannity the Democrats ran a “successful coup against Joe Biden.” 

Meanwhile, the fever swamps floated wild conspiracy theories that Biden ordered the assassination of Trump and was only dropping out because it failed. “The only reason @JoeBiden is dropping out today is because his administration plotted an assassination of Donald Trump and missed,” Trump ally and self-proclaimed “investigative journalist” Laura Loomer tweeted. 

Soon enough, MAGA media revealed just how utterly unready they were for a Harris candidacy, relying instead on lazy misogyny, racism, and recycled attacks to take aim at the nation’s first Black woman vice president. “Here’s just one reason that voters seem to detest Kamala Harris,” Hannity grumbled before airing a montage of Harris laughing. Senate Republicans soon began plotting attack lines on Harris that revolved around, you guessed it, her laugh. 

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“She does not speak well. She does not work hard…. She should not be the standard-bearer for the party,” former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway insisted. Newsmax hosts, GOP politicians, and far-right pundits followed suit by straight up calling her a “DEI hire” who “cackles like an insane woman.”

“Her whole history is DEI,” Fox Business host and former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow exclaimed on Tuesday, referring to the term the right has already weaponized as a racist dog whistle. Still, some Fox News personalities appeared to realize how this could backfire and urged conservatives to back off. “If you start attacking her based on being DEI and all the other stuff like that, you are going to turn voters off,” ‘Fox & Friends’ host Lawrence Jones warned on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, it wasn’t just Harris’ laugh Hannity was fixated on. He even went so far as to literally grasp at straws over a Harris presidential campaign. “She wants to ban plastic straws. I love my plastic straws. I hate paper straws,” he griped.

As for the former president himself, besides trying out uninspired nicknames for Harris, he’s already tacitly admitted that his campaign was built solely around exploiting Biden’s weaknesses as a candidate, even demanding that “the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud” because he has spent so much “time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden.” Trump also hinted that he’d skip out on the next presidential debate. 

“Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC,” Trump raged on Truth Social. Naturally, right-wing pundits quickly jumped in and provided preemptive cover for Trump running out of a debate with Harris, saying he had a “strong case” to pull the plug.

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Tucker the Troll Emerges at RNC

Flaunting his close ties to Trump and his family, Tucker Carlson – who was abruptly fired by Fox News 15 months ago despite being its most-watched anchor – apparently used the Republican National Convention as something of a revenge tour against his former employer while re-emerging as one of MAGA’s most influential voices. Trolling his old network while suggesting his clout in the Trump world now superseded Fox founder Rupert Mudoch’s, Carlson drove home that point on the first night of the convention by sitting in Trump’s box.

Additionally, Carlson drummed up more intrigue by accompanying Donald Trump Jr. at Fox News’ studio in the Fiserv Forum, where the convention was held. While Trump Jr. sat down for an interview with host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Carlson sat in the green room and checked out the studio while mingling with many of his old colleagues. 

It was reported that Carlson's unexpected visit left Fox execs “stunned” and staffers “uncomfortable,” but a source who was in the room told Ragebait that most shrugged off the appearance. “When he came into the green room, Tucker was so far in the rearview mirror,” the source said.

The source added that Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was also once fired from Fox, joined Carlson and her fiancé Trump Jr. “It was just a very weird group,” the source noted. “And people were like, ‘You're welcome to be here, but why are you here?’ It was weird.”

Missing Murdoch by a few minutes in the Fox studio, Carlson appeared to try to run into the media mogul throughout the convention.

In a photo that went viral online, a smiling Carlson was seen just feet away from Murdoch in a restaurant at the Trade Hotel, which is next to the arena. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “the potentially awkward reunion was averted by quick-thinking Murdoch aides, who formed a human wall around the Fox News baron just as Carlson was passing by, narrowly averting contact between the two.”

An eyewitness told Ragebait, however, that Murdoch was wrapping up a Wednesday breakfast meeting in a private event room when Carlson suddenly came rushing down to the restaurant. Though there were “plenty of seats to go sit down,” the source noted, Carlson stood at the lobby entrance for several minutes, perhaps figuring Murdoch would be forced to walk past him. Carlson did not respond to a request for comment.

“The problem is that Rupert took a different elevator,” the source said, adding that Murdoch appeared to have “no idea” Carlson was there. The following day, the eyewitness was in the restaurant when Carlson sat down at a table close to a private room where Murdoch had scheduled a meeting. 

“[H]e sits there, and he waits, and he waits, and he waits,” the source said. But Murdoch used a second door to enter the meeting, avoiding Carlson altogether. (Ironically, in a recent Wall Street Journal profile, Carlson said he avoids restaurants because they’re too costly, instead saying he has his meals prepared at home – by a private chef.)

Back to the Limelight

Alongside Trump Jr., whom he has struck up a close friendship with, Carlson has appeared to look to position the RNC as proof that Fox News and Murdoch no longer hold sway over the GOP and the conservative movement. For instance, while Murdoch pushed North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum hard to Trump as a vice presidential candidate, the former president ultimately decided on Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio after Carlson personally lobbied for the MAGA culture warrior.

“There was a time where if you wanted to survive in the Republican Party, you had to bend the knee to him or to others. I don't think that's the case anymore,” Trump Jr. told Axios on Tuesday, adding that Murdoch’s influence on GOP politics “is not what it used to be.”

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It appears that cozying up to Trump – who he once said he hated passionately – has helped return Carlson to the limelight. He told the New York Times that he is working on a docuseries about Trump that will include close-up footage of the assassination attempt on the ex-president. But it also seems clear that it’s Carlson who needs Trump more than the other way around.

According to two sources familiar with the former president’s comments, Trump told Fox News employees that the only reason Carlson was seated in his friends and family box on Monday night was that the former Fox star asked to be there. Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment about the former president's remarks.

In the end, it also remains to be seen if Carlson’s MAGA clout truly is as powerful as Murdoch’s. While Fox News scored a post-RNC interview with Trump and Vance, Carlson – who has transitioned into a Joe Roganesque podcaster – countered by booking Pizzagate conspiracist Jack Posobiec. During that conversation, Carlson claimed women leaders have been “nasty” and “bloodthirsty” and said he doesn’t “see any evidence that female leadership is more likely to get us to peace than male leadership - I see the opposite.” He even compared Harris to former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. 

MSNBC Gets Its Groove Back

What a difference a couple of weeks makes.

After Democrats went into full crisis mode following Biden’s atrocious and feeble debate, MSNBC found itself in its own purgatory. The channel saw its ratings plummet as disgruntled Biden stans felt the network’s reliably liberal hosts had abandoned the president amid growing Democratic calls for him to drop out. 

Making matters worse, MSNBC’s corporate parent Comcast decided to pull ‘Morning Joe’ – aka Biden’s favorite cable news show – from the air the Monday after the assassination attempt on Trump, reportedly over concerns that the show’s crew would say something inappropriate. The move left MSNBC staffers concerned that network bosses were currying favor with a potential Trump administration and prompted hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough to publicly threaten to quit if it ever happened again.

Less than a week after the ‘Morning Joe’ drama, everything changed. And it was as if a massive weight had been lifted from the network’s shoulders.

Moments after Biden dropped out, Scarborough – who appears to serve as an informal adviser to the president – was on MSNBC gloating that Republicans were melting down over Biden’s exit. “The most telling thing about how positive this may be for the Democratic Party is the Republican response,” he said, adding that GOP leaders were already complaining that it was a “violation of democracy.”

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Heaping praise on Biden for his “act of selfless devotion” and “political sacrifice,” the network’s top stars said the president “changed everything today in an instant” and that it now fully put the focus back on Trump. They also acknowledged the amount of criticism they had received from their own viewership in recent weeks.

“There has been so much consternation about the fight in the party but also the media coverage of the fight. We have talked about all that,” Rachel Maddow noted. “But throughout, even as difficult as it was, it was a good-faith fight.”

By the next day, ‘Morning Joe’ had become the destination for prominent Democrats to argue the case for Harris and jockey for position. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, both of whom are on the running mate shortlist, appeared on Monday, while other VP hopefuls like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker popped up the following morning.

Needless to say, it’s now only a matter of time before Harris herself shows up for an MSNBC sitdown. 

Watch out for ‘Ragebait’ every other week. I’ll focus on the right-wing outrage-industrial complex and the intersection of our political and media landscapes. Subscribe now, and send any tips here.

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Hey there! I’m Justin Baragona. As a longtime St. Louis, Missouri native who had a whole other career in mortgage banking, I decided to make journalism a full-time profession after covering the Ferguson protests. Eventually, this led to my obsession with the way our political media operates and covers the news, especially the right-wing press. Since then, whether it’s through enterprise reporting, in-depth analysis, or just mocking the latest dumb moment of cable news punditry, I’ve devoted myself to shedding light on the propagandistic nature of this industry, including at the Daily Beast where I was their senior media reporter. It is not only important for news consumers to be exposed to this information, but it is imperative to understand how it impacts our politics and culture as a whole. 

Why Is Fox News Ignoring Project 2025?

While much of the media’s attention these past two weeks has centered squarely on President Joe Biden’s dismal debate performance and the growing calls for him to drop out, another major story impacting the presidential race bubbled up in recent days. And though it has drawn a fair amount of attention from the mainstream and liberal press, viewers of conservative cable giant Fox News have barely been made aware of it.

Taking to his Truth Social platform last Friday, Donald Trump incredulously asserted that he knew “nothing about Project 2025,” the Heritage Foundation’s multi-pronged blueprint for a second Trump administration that would overhaul the executive branch and initiate far-right policy changes. “I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump added. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

Of course, what makes the former president’s claims ludicrous is that the 900-page MAGA playbook is authored largely by Trump’s inner circle. “All told, of the 38 people responsible for writing and editing Project 2025, 31 were appointed or nominated to positions in the Trump administration and transition,” Popular Information’s Judd Legum noted. 

Trump’s hand appeared to be forced, however, when Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast last week and boasted that we’re in a “second American Revolution” that “will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Meanwhile, despite Trump now claiming he doesn’t know who’s behind Project 2025, back in 2022, he praised Roberts as “so incredible” while speaking at a Heritage Foundation conference.

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Those comments, alongside Democrats’ increased efforts to tie the extremist agenda to Trump, prompted the former president’s reaction. In the end, though, it only “made this into a bigger deal,” according to The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman.

While it was a “bigger deal” on CNN and MSNBC, that hasn’t been the case on Fox News, which serves as the de facto communication arm of the GOP and Trump. Since Trump attempted to publicly back away from Project 2025, CNN has mentioned the plan at least 69 times as of Tuesday evening, according to media monitoring service TVEyes. MSNBC has flooded its airwaves with coverage of the conservative blueprint and Trump’s ties to it, discussing the topic over 240 times.

Fox News, on the other hand, has all but turned a blind eye to the story. Between Friday and Tuesday morning, Project 2025 was only mentioned on Fox’s airwaves three times, and only in a passing manner. One instance featured Laura Ingraham merely airing a clip of MSNBC host Joy Reid referencing the blueprint as the reason why she was sticking with Biden. Additionally, Project 2025 was brought up by a Democratic congressman during a Sunday interview and resident “liberal” panelist Harold Ford Jr. on Monday’s The Five. His conservative colleagues generally ignored Ford’s brief mention.

By late Tuesday morning, the right-wing network did begin running news reports from correspondent Bryan Llenas, who noted that Democrats purchased billboards tying Trump to the far-right blueprint. “Democrats say this playbook lays out Trump’s dangerous plans. Trump says he has nothing to do with Project 2025,” Llenas reported.

On Wednesday afternoon, a day after Ragebait first reached out to the network for comment on their silence about Project 2025, Fox News anchor Sandra Smith finally acknowledged on air that the conservative playbook has “drawn controversy and unusual political distance” from Trump. She then brought on Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, who said she’d “been digging around on this” before delivering a report that noted that while many former Trump staffers are linked to the project, the Heritage Foundation claims it is merely proposing “suggestions” and the RNC says the party’s platform and Agenda 47 are “the only ones endorsed by Trump.”

Fox having buried news that reflect poorly on Trump or the Republican Party is hardly a new phenomenon. Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz told Zeteo’s Ragebait that the network does this because it acts solely as a “Trumpist propaganda outlet” now.

“It is primarily focused on the political success of Donald Trump, and to a somewhat lesser extent, of the Republican Party as a whole, and as such, the network's hosts and contributors are just not focused at all on anything resembling policy nuance or policy debates and disputes within the right,” he said.

“You have much of the coverage focusing around broad culture war fights or immigration or crime, where the notion is that somehow Donald Trump will solve the problem, but not really a focus on how specifically that will happen,” Gertz added. “And I think Project 2025 is really just that phenomenon writ large. They're not focused on Project 2025 because they don't think that a focus on policy helps Donald Trump, and so they simply don't provide that kind of coverage.”

Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.

Doing A 180

Up is down, black is white, and yes, we are truly in the Upside Down.

In the aftermath of The Debate, Trump has all but disappeared from the public eye, seemingly content to enlist Biden’s so-called “basement strategy” as the president desperately attempts to keep his presidential campaign alive. Meanwhile, Biden has seamlessly adopted his opponent’s arrogant and defiant swagger, digging in his heels while imposing his will on nervous Democrats who fear that the race may now be a lost cause. 

The two presidential hopefuls’ 180-degree shift was fully laid bare on Monday. With his high-stakes primetime ABC News interview doing nothing to calm the nerves of liberal lawmakers or big-money donors, Biden decided to go on offense. Congressional Democrats returning to Capitol Hill on Monday were greeted with an open letter from Biden telling them in no uncertain terms that he’s “not going anywhere.” His campaign also sent out a memo highlighting Biden’s dozen-plus campaign and media appearances since the debate, along with his upcoming schedule.

Taking a page from Trump’s playbook, Biden followed all that up by calling into his favorite cable news program to deliver this emphatic message to potentially wayward Democrats: Get on board the Biden train or shut the hell up! Challenging his party’s anxious “elites” and “big names” to take him on at the convention, Biden placed himself firmly in the anti-establishment camp – a head-scratching move from a man who has spent over 50-plus years in Washington. More so considering he was saying all this on Morning Joe, a show made by and for Beltway insiders whose hosts double as Biden advisers.

Biden’s aggressive and rambling Morning Joe appearance led more than a few reporters to draw comparisons to Trump’s frequent Fox & Friends call-ins during his time in office. “For a politician whose most salient pitch to voters is not being Donald Trump, Biden is starting to act a lot like him,” investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein noted. 

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The Trump-era similarities only grew during Monday’s White House press briefing, which became extremely contentious when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre – suddenly finding her press office under a credibility crisis – refused to answer whether a neurologist’s frequent White House visits were for the president. Hours after she scolded reporters for pressing her on the issue, the White House released a memo explaining the specialist had seen Biden during his physical exams – prompting Biden-friendly media figures to lambaste the “grotesque behavioral overreaction” of the press corps. 

While Biden engages in a public relations blitz to stem the tide of Democratic defectors, Trump has appeared satisfied to hang out at his golf course and stay out of the spotlight. Outside of a leaked video of him mocking Vice President Kamala Harris from a golf cart, Trump wasn’t seen publicly for 11 days until Tuesday night’s rally at his Florida golf resort. Even his much-ballyhooed Monday night Fox News interview, a pre-taped affair with confidant Sean Hannity that was billed as the former president’s first post-debate TV appearance, turned out to just be a phoner that only lasted 18 minutes – four minutes less than Biden’s sitdown with ABC. 

In the end, the same MAGA mouthpieces who mocked Biden’s 2020 campaign strategy as proof of his lack of stamina are now praising the 78-year-old former president for doing the exact same thing. “I have a lot of respect for Donald Trump for going to the basement. That was really smart,” Fox News host Jesse Watters gushed on Monday.

Exclusive: Newsmax In Trouble?

Exclusive: Newsmax In Trouble?

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy has claimed that his network is now “profitable” during recent media appearances—although an investment memo shows a net loss for the past two years. He has also pitched viewers and “low-info investors” to buy shares in Newsmax at $5,000 a pop as part of a “private stock offering,” all while promising the stock would be more valuable when he went public in the future.

Last month, the MAGA cable news channel announced that it was raising upwards of $225 million from investors with hopes of launching an IPO in the near future. With the network currently staring down billion-dollar defamation lawsuits from voting software firms Smartmatic and Dominion over its promotion of Trump’s 2020 election lies, sources told Mediaite that Ruddy is trying to raise cash fast because he’s “worried about an existential threat” if he has to settle one of the cases. “They can’t even afford a $15 million settlement,” one source said. (In a similar lawsuit, Fox News settled with Dominion last year for $787.5 million.)

In its prospectus to potential investors, Newsmax acknowledges that it is “subject to unfavorable litigation that could require it to pay significant amounts, lead to onerous operating procedures or have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position,” pointing to the two lawsuits. 

In addition, the network also reveals that it “entered into a settlement agreement with a commercial counterparty” last year for $41.3 million, of which it has paid less than $2 million. If that wasn’t enough, the disclosure also shows that Newsmax hasn’t turned a profit since 2021, having lost nearly $20 million in 2022 and $41.8 million last year. Total net revenues for the past two years have hovered around $135 million.

Yet, despite the mysterious multi-million dollar settlement payout and a public market downturn for media companies at large, Ruddy has confidently declared that his network is on pace to earn $180 million this year and turn a profit. In doing so, he has asserted that the company is not only currently profitable but was also in the black last year.

“The company ended last year profitable, and it is continuing that profitability,” Ruddy told conservative radio host John Fredericks last month. “We expect it to be profitable this year.”

In a separate appearance on The Daily Signal podcast, he once again noted that “we are a profitable company this year,” claiming that “it’s not like we’re desperate for the capital” and that it was merely an “opportunity to share a piece of our company in exchange for us to build an even bigger company.” 

“We are doing well, we are profitable!” Ruddy exclaimed on Richmond’s Morning News with John Reid. He also compared Newsmax to Trump’s Truth Social, seemingly positioning his network as a safer bet for “MAGA meme stock” aficionados. 

“His app he put out there in a public offering, he did $4 million in business last year, and the company is trading over $5 billion in market cap on the stock market,” Ruddy added. “We’re gonna do $180 million or more, maybe as much as $200 million this year in revenue.”

Meanwhile, on the network’s airwaves, viewers are bombarded with constant appeals from hosts to invest in Newsmax, letting them know they can even purchase shares via credit card. To that end, Newsmax pundit Dick Morris is being portrayed as a top Trump adviser while pitching the stock on air, suggesting Trump’s involvement in Newsmax will cause it to gain value because the channel will pass Fox News in popularity and viewership after the election. 

“He really appreciates the fact that Newsmax is the only station that covers his campaign rallies,” Morris said last week. “And as he saw in the debate, his views on issues are shaped by what he says in these rallies. And I think that he's going to be working very closely with Newsmax because he has no choice.”

In a statement to Ragebait, a Newsmax spokesman denied that Ruddy had said anything untruthful in his recent media appearances. “Mr. Ruddy’s statements are accurate and your claims as to his statements are false,” the spokesman said. “Media companies often lose money starting up new operations and that does not mean they will always lose money. Newsmax now receives significant revenue through cable license fees.”

Exclusive: Trump Loves RSBN

The Righting, a website that tracks conservative media and podcasts, gave Ragebait a sneak peek of its upcoming Trump Link Tracker. Howard Polskin, the site’s founder, launched the tracker last month as a way to show what news outlets the former president links to on his campaign website and Truth Social feed.

According to his preliminary findings for June, which will be released to the public early next week to coincide with the Republican National Convention, there has been a large spike in links to The New York Post. In fact, according to Polskin, links to the Murdoch-owned tabloid have increased by a factor of seven. (The Post had only received seven total links from Trump in May.)  In terms of far-right media, the former president continues to link to the streaming channel Right Side Broadcasting Network the most. RSBN, which covers all of Trump’s rallies in full, also carries a show hosted by Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair. 

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Behind the Scenes 

More than a month after former Fox News star Eric Bolling abruptly left Newsmax, leaving a vacancy in the network’s primetime lineup, the competition between the channel’s hosts vying for the 8 p.m. time slot is growing fierce.

According to network insiders, the producers of the hour previously anchored by Bolling are pushing for afternoon host Bianca de la Garza to get the role. While network management floated giving de la Garza the show and moving former primetime host Jenn Pellegrino to daytime, a source with knowledge told Ragebait that content chief Elliot Jacobson had expressed reluctance over the move. 

Network chief Chris Ruddy, meanwhile, is keen on placing disgraced Fox News anchor Ed Henry in Bolling’s old hour. “The network really wants to put Ed Henry in that position, but there’s too much back and forth about his reputation igniting bad publicity,” the source said. “Ruddy believes if they placed Ed Henry in that slot close enough to the election, viewers might be too focused on Trump vs Biden for the move to get enough impactful attention.” Notably, Henry was supposed to anchor the network’s debate night coverage but was suddenly pulled in the wake of an unflattering report detailing a human resources complaint against him at his former channel.

While Jacobson has pushed for daytime host Bob Brooks to get the promotion, vice president of programming Chris Knowles wants 7 p.m. host Rob Schmitt to expand his show to two hours. Additionally, ex-WABC Radio host Lidia Curanaj “is actively campaigning for the slot,” according to the source with knowledge, adding that she is a long shot due to the network bosses finding her “off-putting to middle America with her tough, New York exterior.”

A spokesperson for Newsmax declined to comment on this story.

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Welcome to ‘Ragebait’, Zeteo’s biweekly media newsletter that focuses intently on the right-wing outrage-industrial complex and the intersection of our political and media landscapes. ‘Ragebait’ is written by Justin Baragona, a former senior media reporter for The Daily Beast and cable news correspondent for Mediaite. Make sure to subscribe to ‘Ragebait’ at Zeteo and send any tips here.