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Reposted by Mark Jacob

There's a takeover of the American news industry going on, pushed by Elon Musk, the Ellisons, the Saudis and others. Democracy is impossible if the truth is buried under right-wing propaganda, so we've got to push back against this "media capture." My Stop the Presses newsletter.

stopthepresses.news

American oligarchs and foreign fatcats are attempting ‘media capture’

Your access to real news is threatened by Elon Musk, the Ellisons, the Saudis, and others

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 6h

Faced with outrage over his use of taxpayer money for campaign ads, Trump now says he’ll use his PAC money. Will he pay back the money from ads that already ran? I want proof of what he says, because he’s a lying criminal.

Trump: The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money. This is a rather standard thing to do but, rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 7h

Imagine choosing to be this vile and doing it day after day. Megyn Kelly is toxic waste.

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 8h

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 15h

Aaron's relentless work has made all of us so much more aware of just how bat sh*t crazy Donald Trump is. When too many headlines, news stories & pundit panels fail to accurately report on Trump (& his admin & GOP lawmakers), Aaron's clips provide an essential reality check.

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 11h

"I can't let you filibuster," says MacCallum, as El-Sayed ticks off gas prices, food prices, service members killed or stationed overseas for long assignments...

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 10h

Congrats to the NY Times. Trump is calling for its "arrest" on the same day NYT ran a fawning story about his former press secretary, the "steely” and “nimble” Karoline Leavitt. When the Times' staff is frog-marched out of the newsroom at gunpoint, will they realize they brought it on themselves?

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 10h

stopthepresses.news

American oligarchs and foreign fatcats are attempting ‘media capture’

Your access to real news is threatened by Elon Musk, the Ellisons, the Saudis, and others

27768312

Reposted by Mark Jacob

Nancy Levine Stearns @nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 12h

I guess the CEO of Anovaeon, Eric Fritz, didn’t love my new reporting on the new ICE facility for unaccompanied kids about to open at an airport in Louisiana. Anovaeon is a “humanitarian” ICE contractor running the facility. Eric apparently blocked me on LinkedIn after I sent him this query.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 14h

After ICE murdered Renee Nicole Good on a Minneapolis street, Karoline Leavitt called her a "deranged, lunatic woman" who committed "domestic terrorism." Good's last words to the ICE agent who killed her were: "I'm not mad at you." The NY Times didn't mention that in its story about Leavitt.

yahoo.com

Karoline Leavitt Takes Shocking Swipe at ICE Shooting Victim

MAGA motormouth Karoline Leavitt joined in the Trump administration’s cacophonous chorus of victim shaming during a Fox News appearance on Monday. The White House press secretary echoed the sentiments...

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 15h

We need journalists who don't praise Karoline Leavitt for how good she is at lying.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 15h

Here's how petty and snide Karoline Leavitt is. Last year, she said: “As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios.” The same New York Times reporter who praised her today as "steely and nimble" wrote this story about that policy.

nytimes.com

Pronouns in Bio? You May Not Get a Response From the White House. (Published 2025)

Some Trump administration officials have declined to answer questions from several journalists on the basis of their email signatures.

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 16h

eye rolls all the way around on this one.

Dylan Byers
@DylanByers
Big get here for @FoxNews
Quote
Brian Stelter
@brianstelter
·
2h
Karoline Leavitt is joining Fox News as a contributor starting Nov. 1, @grynbaum reports https://nytimes.com/2026/10/05/bus

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 16h

Ken Paxton says he doesn't control his own campaign. If he reaches the Senate, who will control his vote? Stephen Miller? Elon Musk? (And isn't it interesting that audio keeps leaking from Paxton events. Some of the people closest to him hate him.)

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 16h

I love when White House reporters assure us that Karoline Leavitt was an entirely different person off the record as if that's not key to the whole Trump regime's press manipulation strategy.

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 17h

As a longtime Chicago journalist I want to say that if you fail to put Hastert's serial CHILD SEX ABUSE in the headlines about his death, you are doing it wrong. So far, this is the only headline I've seen that has been crystal clear about what the Illinois pol did to kids. Credit @reuters.com.

Dennis Hastert, former US House speaker and admitted child molester, dies at 84

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 17h

The obvous conclusion from that New York Times story about Karoline Leavitt is that the Times doesn't mind being lied to by taxpayer-funded "public servants." The Times doesn't even think it's newsworthy that the public is being lied to.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 17h

Soon after Leavitt started as Tump's press secertary, I wrote this piece for my Stop the Presses newsletter. It's a lot more truth-telling than today's fawning New York Times story.

stopthepresses.news

Karoline Leavitt is a professional liar

Trump’s press secretary is paid by the taxpayers to hoodwink the taxpayers.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 17h

The NY Times uses words like “fierce,” “steely,” “nimble” and “homegrown star of the Trump White House” to describe Karoline Leavitt, who just got a Fox News gig. Not a single mention of her relentless lying to the American public. Reporter Michael M. Grynbaum and his editors suck.

nytimes.com

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s ‘Machine Gun,’ Has a New Gig at Fox News (Gift Article)

A fierce and nimble speaker, Ms. Leavitt is the second of Mr. Trump’s former press secretaries to join the cable news network.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 17h

Just got around to reading the full transcript of Time magazine's interview of Trump. His brain is goop. He said of the judge in the Kennedy Center case: "The judge is a Trump hater, radical left Trump hater. His wife uses a different name." His wife uses a different name? So what?

time.com

Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript

The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 18h

ok first of all, whatever horrific things the government in tehran is responsible for, it's a pretty normal thing for a country to fight back when attacked militarily

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 19h

New Fox poll shows Trump coalition collapsing in Texas. GOP is sinking money into Iowa and Kansas. The horrors of Late-Stage Trumpism are creating space for a new anti-corruption, anti-cruelty politics to emerge. On the pod, @aselrod.bsky.social is brilliant on this: newrepublic.com/article/2161...

newrepublic.com

Fox Drops Brutal Poll on Trump as Leaks Reveal MAGA Panic: “Wake Up!”

As the Trump-GOP position worsens, political theorist explains why Trump-MAGA’s corrupt and depraved misrule has created space for a new, values-based liberal-Democratic politics to emerge.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The New York Times asks the RNC for crowd sizes for Trump's events. Rather than provide numbers, the RNC issues a meaningless statement, and the NYT prints it! Why would the RNC answer a reporter’s questions when the NYT is willingly to reprint Republican propaganda instead?

Natalie Baldassarre, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, responded to a request for crowd sizes at each event by saying on Sunday that the rallies were “drawing some of our highest ticket demands to date,” adding that “our Republican candidates will continue to build off this momentum and drive voters to the polls as we approach Election Day.”

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Rahm Emanuel should focus on shutting up and going away.

NBC: Rahm Emanuel says Democrats should focus on ethics reforms rather than impeaching Trump

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

If there was truth in campaign advertising, Trump's message in 2024 would've been: "Vote for me so I can spend the next 4 years blaming all of our problems on people who aren't in power."

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Reposted by Mark Jacob

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Whether it’s Obama saying “yes we can” or Donald Trump say “we’re gonna shove it up their ass” both presidents adopted divisive slogans.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is one of the questions I address in my Stop the Presses newsletter. My Monday newsletter is free, and there's a paid tier if you choose to contribute and get bonus features. Subscribe! If you decide it's not for you, you can easily cancel.

stopthepresses.news

Stop the Presses | Mark Jacob | Substack

A weekly newsletter about how right-wing extremism has exploited the weaknesses in American journalism, and what we can do about it. Click to read Stop the Presses, by Mark Jacob, a Substack publicati...

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Does anyone tthink the smartest reporters in DC don't know Trump is building a dictatorship? Of course they know. The question is why they won't tell the public loudly and clearly.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I respect the kind of journalist who may be jailed if the U.S. keeps moving toward a dictatorship, not the kind of journalist who will do just fine regardless.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Look for my newsletter about that tomorrow.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My first sentence was: "Joe Biden was too old to be president." Does that sound like an attaboy to Democrats? Trump's recent interview with Time magazine was so bonkers that it was the equivalent of Biden's debate meltdown, but not treated like that in the media.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Joe Biden was too old to be president. Trump is the same age as Biden was when he was president. And it’s obvious that Trump is less mentally healthy than Biden was. So when will the media report that the president’s brain is broken? If the answer is “never,” that means the media are broken too.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The news media are way too accepting of racism in our politics. They should be peppering the Republicans' Senate candidates in TX, OH, MI, IA and ME with questions about why they welcome campaign help from white supremacist Elon Musk.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

If we lived in a functioning democracy, major newspapers would run Page 1 editorials pleading with people to vote out the Republicans to save us from a fascist dictatorship. But most of the mainstream media have run out of bravery, if they ever had any.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is actually a good story by the New York Times' Peter Baker. But as usual, the editors ran it through their Euphemism Desk so the headline talks about Trump "moving ethical lines" instead of saying flat-out that the president is deeply corrupt and is putting your money in his pocket.

nytimes.com

How Trump Moved Ethical Lines With His Ads, Businesses and Summits (Gift Article)

The president’s decision to hold an international summit at his own private golf club, an idea rejected in his first term, illustrates how much he has shattered norms.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Trump, 2016: "When we win ... we will be able to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare. ... And we will do it very, very quickly." Trump, 10 years later: "We will pass a truly great health care plan." Still no health care plan.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I think they had to buy it or the whole nation since the broadcast was national.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Congratulations, fake Christians.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

People’s replies are informing me of that. Seems poorly targeted. Maybe a national ad buy was the only ad buy they would allow. Republicans have a lot of big donors because the super-rich want tax cuts to make them super-richer.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The ways he writes that, you have to wonder.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A senator‘s years of service lying for a criminal don‘t protect the senator from being victimized by the criminal.

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