Right-wing media figures are doing everything they can to support the Trump administration's efforts to enact regime change in Cuba

I am heartbroken to announce that I am no longer at Media Matters for America due to the hostile litigation campaign against the organization. I dedicated nearly four years to improving LGBTQ coverage in mainstream media & challenging right-wing propaganda. It wasn't easy, but I am proud of it. 🧵

Fox News just can't stop pushing Trump to start bombing Iran again

Fox News personalities are encouraging Trump to begin bombing Iran again as a tenuous ceasefire shows potential signs of collapse.

Fox News figures are desperately pushing for Trump to start bombing Iran again. At least two sit on the boards of directors of defense contractors that could benefit from a resumption of active hostilities.

Right-wing media is turning to an old playbook as Trump's unpopular war with Iran curdles: Blame the press. It may be the only lesson conservative media learned from the Vietnam War.

Who remembers the Friedman Unit?

In the new issue of @bookforum.bsky.social I got to write about Langston Hughes, blues poetry, and communism: www.bookforum.com/print/3204/m...

I wrote about Gen. Jack Keane, one of Fox's most vocal cheerleaders for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, who also happens to sit on the board of directors of two military contractors. The network doesn't seem to have disclosed this conflict of interest over at least 59 appearances on Fox News/Business

I wrote about Gen. Jack Keane, one of Fox's most vocal cheerleaders for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, who also happens to sit on the board of directors of two military contractors. The network doesn't seem to have disclosed this conflict of interest over at least 59 appearances on Fox News/Business

Whatever this means specifically, more generally the United States and Israel have already jointly carried out a genocide, specifically in Gaza. Once that line is crossed and those actions justified, there is no limit to what these countries can and will do

The guy who publishes this website, Chris Buskirk, is a close ally of JD Vance and is financially backed by Peter Thiel and Rebekah Mercer

Israel is poised to begin carrying out a program of state-sponsored murder of Palestinians, complete with parliamentary and public support

Only slightly exaggerating to say MAGA thought they could extract concessions as easily from Iran as from Cracker Barrel

I wrote about how the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is threatening a global food crisis, which is driving divisions in right-wing media. Many conservative pundits are using fertilizer shortages to call for escalation, & some are saying this proves the war was a bad idea from the outset.

At the NYT, time doesn't flow in a linear path. Rather, it begins halfway through a series of events, bending to ensure that official enemies of the US and Israel are blamed for instantiating a "new phase" of economic warfare despite said phase "following" and earlier act

Something so perfect about the US waging this war with intrinsic awareness towards the timing of the market and total indifference to the timing of global food production

If you're not watching Fox News all day long, you might not appreciate the extent to which Brian Kilmeade -- who once tried to roast a marshmallow with his hands and a plastic spoon -- is functioning as de facto national security advisor

I wrote about how right-wing media figures are looking for scapegoats as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran spirals out of control. Two leading candidates: NATO countries who won't open the Strait of Hormuz, and the Iranian people who haven't overthrown the government. There will be more.

In 2023 Media Matters conducted a research study where we watched all of the videos released by PragerU Kids. We thought it was about time to update that research. So I did!

I wrote about right-wing media figures embracing "regime collapse" -- as opposed to "regime change" -- and how they've dispensed with even the thin pretext of humanitarianism. What's left is destruction for destruction's sake and a belief that Iran as a failed state is a desirable outcome

I wrote about right-wing media figures embracing "regime collapse" -- as opposed to "regime change" -- and how they've dispensed with even the thin pretext of humanitarianism. What's left is destruction for destruction's sake and a belief that Iran as a failed state is a desirable outcome

The US and Israel jointly carried out a genocide in Gaza and once you've crossed that line it's not clear that there are any internal constraints or limiting principles. These two countries are truly capable of anything right now

Fox News' Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, and Jesse Watters want to flood Iran with small arms to incite regime change (or more likely state collapse), an idea so reckless even one of Fox's biggest war cheerleaders, retired Gen. Jack Keane, said it was a bad idea [research from @slawton.bsky.social]

MAGA media figures like Benny Johnson and Greg Kelly seemed to have inside information about the Iran war before Trump launched it. Fox News' Brian Kilmeade said he attended a "briefing with high-ranking Trump officials" on Saturday. Congress, meanwhile, is scheduled to get briefed tomorrow.

Indistinguishable from an old self-help bit by Rob Lathan

I will simply reiterate what I have said for years, namely that whatever their utility when it comes to individual psychopathology, the ideas of repetition compulsions and the death drive are super clarifying when it comes to the libidinal economies of settler colonial imperial violence

I wrote about Nick Shirley endorsing an antisemitic video made by Tyler Oliveira. They're two of the rising stars of MAGA's new class of self-described "independent journalists," provocateurs who have adopted James O'Keefe's approach and play a crucial role in the right-wing media ecosystem

Nick Shirley is rebooting old James O'Keefe myths about voter fraud and serving them up to a new audience. Did either of them find fraud? No. But did they come close? Also no. But what if you simply imagined the fraud? Well, now we're talking!

Shortly after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good, right-wing media seized on a story that could reset the narrative. DHS said an immigrant attacked federal officers with a shovel, and the story was everywhere in MAGA media. The case has since fallen apart & prosecutors just dropped the charges.

CBS Evening News just inverted CBS News' own reporting, which found very low rates of so-called criminal histories for ICE arrestees. But the Evening News distorted its own network's article, making it seem like the Trump admin was rounding up the "worst of the worst." Very cool editorial process

in august, TOM HOMAN admitted that this was the law www.mediamatters.org/immigration/... via @johnknefel.bsky.social

I wrote about the right-wing media campaign to erode 4th Amendment protections by mischaracterizing demands that ICE/BP get a judicial warrant before entering a home. Even Tom Homan admitted as much last summer.

Tom Homan in August: ICE agents “need a judicial warrant for a search” ⬇️

I found a Fox News interview from August 2025 where Border Czar Tom Homan acknowledges that ICE needs a judicial warrant to perform a search of private property -- contrary to an ICE memo that says agents only need an administrative warrant. Curious what he believes now.

NEW: The Israeli military today accepted the Gaza Health Ministry's estimate of 70,000+ killed. But in 2024, 62 Dems joined 207 Republicans to ban the State Dept. from citing the Ministry's stats. Now, even Israel accepts them — perhaps because they realize what is feared: the toll is even higher.

I wrote about how Fox News is trying to portray Tom Homan as the immigration good cop, the professional, the cooler head -- all of which is absurd to anyone who knows the first thing about him. Fox is trying for a rebrand but the underlying policy hasn't changed.

I've been studying the history of US, and indeed, global policing my whole career and I can't make it more clear to law makers that this isn't a bastardization of policing, it is its purest form and logical conclusion. The impunity, militarization, deference, legitimacy, racial targeting, etc.

Just a little background on Bill Melugin, the Fox News reporter who posted a photo of a gun supplied to him by DHS. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/bil...

New piece on Fox News' repeated use of a totally misleading talking point about the supposed criminality of ICE arrestees. The number of people in ICE custody with a conviction for a violent criminal offense is about 5-7%. Fox's coverage falsely suggests the number is closer to 70%.

The rhetoric MAGA media is using to describe Minnesota protesters is increasingly unhinged and militaristic -- "insurgents" and "terrorists" waging "guerilla warfare,” looking to provoke a "Fort Sumter moment" and start a civil war. New from me and @slawton.bsky.social at @mmfa.bsky.social

Nativist think tank and close ally of Trump admin calls for Minneapolis school officials to be charged with felonies for allowing hybrid/remote classes during ICE rampages

Wrote a short thing about Laura Ingraham's show last night, where she practically begged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and repeatedly referred to pro-immigrant activists as "insurgents." New at @mmfa.bsky.social

Wrote a short thing about Laura Ingraham's show last night, where she practically begged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and repeatedly referred to pro-immigrant activists as "insurgents." New at @mmfa.bsky.social

I wrote about Trump's new push to ramp up denaturalizations, and how MAGA media is making it clear that they want this effort to target Muslims specifically. Latest at @mmfa.bsky.social

I will NEVER vote for a politician who votes for anti-trans legislation. Never. I don't care who it is, it's a dead issue. Move on. If my vote is so important to the future of democracy they should have thought of that before they voted to exterminate my child.

New from @slawton.bsky.social & me: Mainstream news coverage almost completely ignored Bannon's extensive ties to Epstein. Only 8% of print articles from leading newspapers drew connections between the two. Even worse, no broadcast news segments did. Latest at @mmfa.bsky.social