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Today's Highlights: What MRC's Media Watchdogs Are Saying

Newsbusters

Today's Highlights: What MRC's Media Watchdogs Are Saying

February 20th, 2026 12:01 AM

MRC Watchdogs churn out breaking news on a daily basis. Don't miss Today's Highlights, where you can keep up with the top MRC content, whether it's the latest study on media bias, a glaring omission from the elitist media, or how the Big Tech companies are serving up the same leftist spin as the media.

Selective Outrage in Brooklyn Center Arrest The media hyped the story of ICE agents luring Jesus Emmanuel Flores Aguilar out of his Minnesota home by posing as stranded motorists, painting it as an outrageous tactic. But they conveniently ignored his extensive criminal background, including a felony assault conviction, known gang ties, and two previous deportations in 2010 and 2012—facts that justify enforcement actions and expose the one-sided narrative.

Tragic Oversight in Georgia Teacher's Death A special education teacher, Linda Davis, was killed in Georgia when an illegal alien with a final deportation order fled ICE by making an illegal U-turn and running a red light, smashing into her car. The alien escaped with minor injuries, but this fatal incident barely made headlines, highlighting how media silences stories that don't fit the anti-ICE agenda.

Unpunished Violence in Nebraska Protest Assault During an anti-ICE student protest in Nebraska, teens from a high school threw objects at passing cars and brutally beat a man who confronted them after his vehicle was hit—all while a teacher watched without intervening. No charges have been filed against the students, yet this attack on an innocent bystander went unreported nationally

For discredited legacy media to regain public confidence (and audience) they need to pursue real journalism like this once again. https://t.co/zXkJkRjfm5
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) February 20, 2026

Bill D'Agostino, MRC Senior Research Analyst, uncovered a CBS News clip from 1995 in which Dan Rather exposes the “national anxiety” over illegal immigration.

Transcript from 48 Hours Trailer: “The American people are having a national anxiety attack over large scale immigration, illegal immigration. [America] can’t take care of the world.

“Anger over immigration. People who are here illegally will be deported. I feel hurt and let down and replaced by foreigners. It is outrageous. Schools and hospitals strained to the limit. Criminal aliens on our streets, burglaries, robberies. He's got 20 different aliases. I just can't believe this really happened. Should America slam the door?”

Elon Musk commented: "Those days are long gone."

White House Advisor Stephen Miller commented: "For discredited legacy media to regain public confidence (and audience) they need to pursue real journalism like this once again."

D'Agostino tweeted: "Unfortunately, broadcast networks are going to have to feel a lot more pain financially before they can countenance this kind of earnest reporting again. Their credibility's already in the dumpster, but as long the ratings remain, so does the agenda."

NY Times Uncorks AOC Stenography: Unfair Scrutiny of Slip-ups Overshadowed 'Message'

Newsbusters

NY Times Uncorks AOC Stenography: Unfair Scrutiny of Slip-ups Overshadowed 'Message'

Clay Waters

February 19th, 2026 11:05 PM

New York Times reporter Kellen Browning is a superfan of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) – in April 2025 he celebrated the “monster crowds” the younger leftist generated on her “Fighting Oligarchy” with older leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders.

AOC came to Munich to warn about the far-right. Coverage focused on 2028 & verbal missteps.

She gave me a call.

"Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president," she said. "Global democracies are on fire the world over."https://t.co/KBeT3kaBzj
— Kellen Browning (@Kellen_Browning) February 17, 2026

AOC came to Munich to warn about the far-right. Coverage focused on 2028 & verbal missteps. She gave me a call. "Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president," she said….

The story’s headline deck made it clear Ocasio-Cortez was in charge of the story’s framing: “After First Big Overseas Trip, Ocasio-Cortez Expresses Frustrations -- The congresswoman argued in an interview that presidential speculation, which included scrutiny of her slip-ups, had overshadowed her anti-authoritarian message at the Munich Security Conference.”

But rather than the substance of her arguments, it was her on-camera stumbles when answering questions about specific world affairs that rocketed around conservative social media and drove plenty of the discussion about her visit, as political observers speculated whether they would make a dent in a potential presidential run in 2028.

....

The way her performance was microscopically dissected through the lens of what it meant for a hypothetical White House campaign frustrated Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 36. She said she worried that her message — warning that wealthy world leaders must better provide for their working classes or risk their countries sliding toward authoritarianism — was being lost in all the commotion.

So on Monday night, while still in Berlin, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez spoke to The New York Times by phone and tried to underscore that message.

….

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argued that efforts to make clips of “any five-to-10-second thing” from her remarks go viral online, especially in the conservative ecosystem, had been done to “distract from the substance of what I am saying.”

What substance?

At least Browning remembered the ideological labeling sometimes, even if it was employed more in praise than as a warning label, which is standard procedure for conservative figures.

Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and the former head of a group of world leaders known as the Elders, said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez offered a generational freshness and that her left-wing ideals appealed to Europeans.

“I’m not sure America’s ready for that yet,” she said. “But maybe it is.”

Still, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s missteps were striking for a politician who is usually quick on her feet and is considered one of the best communicators in politics. In addition to the answer on Taiwan, critics highlighted comments referring to the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (she clarified online that she meant Atlantic) and suggesting that Venezuela was below the Equator (the country lies just to the north).

The journalist commiserated with AOC against political enemies rude enough to notice her painful performance.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s frustration, she said, was that she felt there had been an effort “to shadow and obscure this all through the idea of a horse race….

So anyway, last night I was sitting around, and a politician called me. She told me to get a pen and write down what she wants me to put in the NYT about her, in response to widespread criticism.

So I wrote it down and put it in the paper, while adding my own defenses of her. https://t.co/itiAjofjP4
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 17, 2026

So anyway, last night I was sitting around, and a politician called me. She told me to get a pen and write down what she wants me to put in the NYT about her, in response to widespread criticism. So I wrote it down and put it in the paper, while adding my own defenses of her.

In the words of National Review’s inimitable Charles Cooke:

One could dissect her words for the next ten years straight, with the best of intentions, and still one would not glean anything coherent or useful from them. This wasn’t the fault of “conservative social media” or “rocketing” or “speculation”; it was the fault of Ocasio-Cortez herself, who went to a security conference, was asked questions about security, and fell flat on her face at the first hurdle.

Democrats Want ICE Agents – But, Not Voters – to be Required to Show IDs, Rep. Steube Says

Newsbusters

Democrats Want ICE Agents – But, Not Voters – to be Required to Show IDs, Rep. Steube Says

Craig Bannister

February 19th, 2026 4:48 PM

“Democrats have shut down DHS because they want to endanger our law enforcement officers and ICE agents by making them show ID,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) warns regarding the partial government shutdown led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Democrats have caused a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by filibustering a bill to continue funding it – unless the funding bill contains provisions crippling and endangering U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents working to enforce federal immigration law.

Democrats are demanding that the funding bill not only provide funding, but also prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks and require them to wear IDs on their uniforms, which would enable violent, pro-illegal immigration activists to identify and target them.

Democrats have shut down DHS because they want to endanger our law enforcement officers and ICE agents by making them show ID.

These are same people who say voter ID is racist.

Republican leadership cannot cave to these radicals. pic.twitter.com/dfgOiCFJS1
— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) February 19, 2026

“Democrats have shut down DHS because they want to endanger our law enforcement officers and ICE agents by making them show ID.

“These are same people who say voter ID is racist. Republican leadership cannot cave to these radicals.”

“They’re simply putting that there so that these officers can then be doxed,” Rep. Steube explains in video from an interview embedded in his post:

“You’ve seen these officers be doxed all across the nation. They’re staying in hotels and all these people show up at the hotel, find out they’re staying there. And, it’s really happening in Minneapolis and some of these Democrat-run cities. No, absolutely not. They shouldn’t have to be forced to have their IDs.”

….

“They want ICE agents to have their IDs, but they don’t want voters who vote in our nation’s elections to have IDs and show that they’re actually citizens of our country to vote in our elections.”

“The hypocrisy is beyond the pale,” Rep. Steube says.

.@ChuckSchumer thinks protecting federal elections is racist.

This is exactly why the Senate needs to nuke the filibuster.

If the SAVE Act is “Jim Crow 2.0,” then so is:
- Boarding a plane
- Buying alcohol
- Cashing a check at a bank
- Picking up prescription medication

The… pic.twitter.com/Ab2rrdNPsv
— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) February 12, 2026

“This is exactly why the Senate needs to nuke the filibuster. If the SAVE Act is ‘Jim Crow 2.0,’ then so is:

- Boarding a plane

- Buying alcohol

- Cashing a check at a bank

- Picking up prescription medication

The list goes on and on. 84% of Americans support voter ID. End the filibuster. Pass the SAVE Act.”

The SAVE Act has passed the House and, like the DHS funding bill, is being held up in the Senate by a Democrat filibuster.

Rubio’s Case for a Stronger West

Newsbusters

Rubio’s Case for a Stronger West

Ben Shapiro

February 19th, 2026 4:41 PM

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that stood out not for its bombast but for its clarity. In a room filled with political figures from across the Atlantic — and from both parties at home — Rubio was unmistakably the adult in the room.

Within the Trump administration, Rubio is easily the most articulate spokesman on foreign policy, and at Munich, he demonstrated why. His address offered a robust defense of the transatlantic alliance while avoiding the sharper edges that have unsettled European audiences in recent years.

That contrast was hard to miss. Last year, Vice President JD Vance traveled to Europe and delivered a speech in Davos that struck many Europeans as a warning shot. The message, intentional or not, was that America might be pulling back — and that Europe should prepare to stand alone. Some of that critique was warranted. Some of it was counterproductive.

Rubio charted a different course. He emphasized the depth of America’s ties to Europe, ties measured not in election cycles but in centuries. The United States, he argued, does not seek weaker partners or dependent allies. It seeks strong ones.

“Together we rebuilt a shattered continent in the wake of two devastating world wars,” he said. “When we found ourselves divided once again by the Iron Curtain, the free West linked arms with the courageous dissidents struggling against tyranny in the East to defeat Soviet communism. We have fought against each other, then reconciled, then fought, then reconciled again. And we have bled and died side by side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar.”

Rubio also delivered an unmistakable warning: Alliances only work when all parties carry real weight. The United States cannot indefinitely subsidize sprawling European welfare states while also underwriting the continent’s security. Strong alliances require strong allies -- capable of deterring threats, including a revanchist Russia.

“We do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker,” Rubio said. He urged Europe to abandon what he described as self-imposed guilt and shame, and instead reclaim confidence in its own culture, heritage and civilization.

That critique extended beyond defense spending. Rubio pointed to policy choices Europe has made — from aggressive green energy mandates to mass migration — often driven by a sense of moral atonement rather than national interest. These choices, he suggested, have left the continent less stable, less cohesive and less capable of defending itself.

At the heart of Rubio’s speech was a deeper question: What, exactly, is the West defending?

“Armies do not fight for abstractions,” he said. “Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life. And that is what we are defending: a great civilization that has every reason to be proud of its history, confident of its future, and aims to always be the master of its own economic and political destiny.”

That claim invites debate. Armies have, in fact, fought for abstractions — communism, religious doctrines, ideological visions of the world. Which raises the harder question Rubio implicitly posed but did not fully resolve: What are the ideas of Western civilization that justify defense and sacrifice?

Europe itself is, in many ways, an idea, one forged through conflict as much as cooperation. From the Roman Empire to Christendom to the nation-state system born after the Peace of Westphalia, Europe has continually redefined itself, often in opposition to external threats. Christianity, Enlightenment liberalism, scientific inquiry, market economies and constitutional government all shaped what we now call “the West.”

Those values — rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, property rights, democratic governance and republican self-rule -- form the real foundation of the transatlantic alliance. They are also the reason Russia has always existed at Europe’s margins rather than fully within it.

If those values erode, the alliance erodes with them.

“I am here today to leave it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity, and that once again we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends,” Rubio said. “We want to do it together with you, with a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history; with a Europe that has the spirit of creation of liberty that sent ships out into uncharted seas and birthed our civilization; with a Europe that has the means to defend itself and the will to survive.

“We should be proud of what we achieved together in the last century, but now we must confront and embrace the opportunities of a new one -- because yesterday is over, the future is inevitable, and our destiny together awaits.”

This is the right framework for the Trump administration’s foreign policy, and Rubio articulated it with discipline, seriousness and a sense of historical gravity that was sorely missing from recent transatlantic debates.

In Munich, Rubio did more than reassure allies. He reminded them of what the alliance is actually for.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

The View Has New Excuses for Their Names in Epstein Files & Whoopi's Jet Request

Newsbusters

The View Has New Excuses for Their Names in Epstein Files & Whoopi's Jet Request

Nicholas Fondacaro

February 19th, 2026 4:16 PM

More than two weeks after NewsBusters broke the story and two days after initially trying to explain away why ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg requested to borrow Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet, The View offered up some new excuses for why their co-hosts were in the files. On Thursday’s show, Goldberg’s story completely changed and co-host Joy Behar claimed she only learned that she was at a party with Ghislaine Maxwell from our reporting.

The View kicked off the show by talking about the Epstein files, particularly the arrest of Prince Andrew for allegedly sharing confidential files with Epstein. But it was Behar who wanted to get back to clearing their names.

In NewsBusters’ original reporting about The View co-hosts being in the files, we noted that Behar was included on a guest list for a “William Astor’s dinner” that was also attended by Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell.

According to Behar, our reporting was the first time she heard that Maxwell was at the party. She also lamented that she didn’t know everyone who also attended the Trump wedding she once went to either. And despite previously suggesting Trump was automatically guilty since his name was in the files, Behar found it “very tricky” to assign guilt to people:

BEHAR: We’re on the list because we were at a party or a wedding or something that somebody might have been. That's what I found out anyway.

GOLDBERG: No, I --

BEHAR: I was at Trump's wedding to Marla. Maybe Epstein was there too. Who knows? So that means I'm not guilty obviously, but these other ones, how are you going to decide who is really guilty and who is not? It’s very tricky!

Joy Behar admits the rest of The View case are "on the [Epstein] list because we were at a party or a wedding or something that somebody might have been. That's what I found out anyway."
Whoopi claims the request for Epstein's jet was just a mass plea to private jet owners she… pic.twitter.com/MfUbk2gB09
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 19, 2026

They had to throw this in at the end. pic.twitter.com/sv2HC2lGnO
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 10, 2026

Goldberg and co-host Sara Haines didn’t like Behar’s new point of view. “I think it's very clear” and “I don’t think it’s that tricky,” they said, respectively.

After initially failing to actually explain why, how, and what she knew about Epstein’s jet getting requested on her behalf, Goldberg had a refined excuse. According to her, she wasn’t aware that there was an issue with the plane at the time:

GOLDBERG: If you look, you know why my name is there. Because someone was looking for a plane and that's what people do. They go to all the people would have private planes and say, ‘do you have one?’

SUNNY HOSTIN: And you didn't get on the plane.

GOLDBERG: I didn’t get on the plane. I didn't know they were looking for a plane. I had no idea that the plane I was supposed to be on was no longer available. So, I'm named in there like ‘Whoopi Goldberg needs a plane.’

At least that was a more believable excuse than the one she gave two days ago, when she suggested she took a bus from America - across the Atlantic Ocean - to attend the charity event in Monaco.

“There were plenty of people that were named on the list that may have not done anything wrong,” argued co-host Sunny Hostin in her defense.

Additionally, Haines’s indignation for holding people in the files accountable didn’t seem to apply to her friends. Haines ran interference for Goldberg a couple days ago, but had a change of attitude on Thursday when talking about Prince Andrew. “I don't care who shows up. I don't care who is busted in the files (…) [accountability] needs to be done everywhere,” she declared, before Behar reminded folks they were also in the files.

After helping to downplay and dismiss her View co-host Whoopi Goldberg being in the Epstein files requesting use of his jet, and quipping that Whoopi was too old for Epstein, Sara Haines is now back to indignantly demanding accountability for others.
"[Accountability] needs to… pic.twitter.com/Qp8vBNXuhp
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 19, 2026

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
February 19
11:07:18 a.m. Eastern

(…)

SARA HAINES: This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It's an issue of victims and every time -- every time even just talking about it we say, well, the Democrats are saying this, the Republicans -- I don't care about any of them. I don't care who shows up. I don't care who is busted in the file. All I care these victims who have been silenced and continually victimized through no accountability get their moment. And right now they're getting it and some place we have some countries like France, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania. They’re holding public people accountable and it needs to be done.

SAVANNAH CHRISLEY: Everyone needs to be held accountable.

HAINES: It needs to be done everywhere.

(…)

11:11:12 a.m. Eastern

JOY BEHAR: We’re on the list because we were at a party or a wedding or something that somebody might have been. That's what I found out anyway.

GOLDBERG: No, I --

BEHAR: I was at Trump's wedding to Marla. Maybe Epstein was there too. Who knows? So that means I'm not guilty obviously, but these other ones, how are you going to decide who is really guilty and who is not? It’s very tricky!

[Crosstalk]

GOLDBERG: I think it's very clear.

HAINES: I don’t think it’s that tricky.

[Crosstalk]

GOLDBERG: If you look, you know why my name is there. Because someone was looking for a plane and that's what people do. They go to all the people would have private planes and say, ‘do you have one?’

SUNNY HOSTIN: And you didn't get on the plane.

GOLDBERG: I didn’t get on the plane. I didn't know they were looking for a plane. I had no idea that the plane I was supposed to be on was no longer available. So, I'm named in there like ‘Whoopi Goldberg needs a plane.’

HOSTIN: There are a lot of people who are named -

BEHAR: Marilyn Monroe was on the list.

GOLDBERG: Yes. Elvis also.

HOSTIN: There were plenty of people that were named on the list that may have not done anything wrong.

GOLDBERG: Yeah.

HOSTIN: But I think that there are a lot of people on the list that are guilty of wrongdoing.

BEHAR: Yes, indeed.

(…)

Stepped in It: CBS’s Ed O’Keefe Asks If Trump Has Ever Been Falsely Accused of Racism

Newsbusters

Stepped in It: CBS’s Ed O’Keefe Asks If Trump Has Ever Been Falsely Accused of Racism

Curtis Houck

February 19th, 2026 2:59 PM

Wednesday’s White House press briefing featured a wild detour away from reality when CBS senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe — who’s one of the least-expected elite media journalists to ask something crazy — wondered aloud to press Secretary Karoline Leavitt if President Trump has ever been falsely accused of being a racist.

Following a question about the administration’s efforts to remove markers on slavery from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, he expressed confusion over a portion of Trump’s Truth Social post on the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. in which the President said he’s been “falsely and consistently called a racist by the scoundrels and lunatics on the radical left.”

O’Keefe then asked: “Where or when does the President believe he has been falsely called racist?”

Leavitt couldn’t believe it: “You’re kidding, right?”

CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “Yesterday in his statement about Jesse Jackson the President said ‘despite the fact that I am falsely inconsistently called a racist by the scoundrels and lunatics on the radical left, Democrats all, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way.’ Where… pic.twitter.com/Gjok3xVq9T
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026

Leavitt cut right to the chase by warning O’Keefe she would “pull you a plethora of examples” by having “my team...start going through the internet of radical Democrats throughout the years, Ed, who have accused this president falsely of being a racist on ensure there’s many people in this room and on network television across the country who have accused him of the same.”

She then segued this into previewing President Trump’s Black History Month event later that day that she said would “talk about how his policies are advancing opportunity and prosperity for all Americans through record tax cuts, through the Trump Accounts that all Americans can access, regardless of race.”

“There’s a lot this President has done for all Americans regardless of race and he has absolutely been falsely called and smeared as a racist and I am happy to provide you those receipts and we gladly will right after this briefing,” she later added.

Along with the various White House social media accounts posting a torrent of examples of liberals hurling racism charges at Trump, we have plenty of our own thanks to the vast NewsBusters archives.

Our Geoff Dickens posted the worst of Trump Derangement Syndrome from 2010-2019 as part of his worst of the decade notable quotables, highlighted by moments such as CNN’s Van James calling the 2016 election a “white-lash” by Trump and his voters against black Americans and then-ABC kook Terry Moran saying on Inauguration Day 2017 Trump has “neo-Nazi” tendencies.

Dickens also found that, in 2018, beloved liberal professor Michael Eric Dyson said on The View Trump is “a bigot-in-chief and a racist in residence” who “gets up every morning and excretes the feces of his moral depravity” on America.

By 2020, Joy Reid said the GOP was the modern-day apartheid party and pal Tiffany Cross asserted black Republicans speaking at the Republican National Convention were on par with a minstrel show.

Then-CNN host Chris Cuomo had one of the worst quotes of 2021 when he declared Trump has engaged in the “boldest attempt since the era of Jim Crow” to harm African-Americans and there’s a through line between Trump and the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

And, just last year, there was PBS insisting Trump deployed “overtly racist rhetoric” in a speech about affordability, MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow comparing Trump’s America to Japanese internment, and The View’s Sunny Hostin lamenting Trump’s America is “sickened” by racism.

Needless to say, O’Keefe stepped in it.

As for the actual doo-doo being spewed by the hundreds of millions into the Potomac River, CBSNews.com’s Jennifer Jacobs and then Fox’s Peter Doocy had the questions about the federal government’s reaction to the destruction of a D.C. Water pipe:

CBS’s @JenniferJJacobs: “And on the sewage spill, the sewage pipe that broke on the Potomac, can you give us an update on the federal government’s response? And officials have told CBS that some of that aging infrastructure is a concern that this particular pipe wasn't of the… pic.twitter.com/v0vl3FdTux
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026

DOOCY TIME: “So, you that said any of the three Democrats just need to ask. A few minutes ago, Maryland Governor Wes Moore asked.”@PressSec @KarolineLeavitt: “Wow.”@PDoocy: “He said, ‘if the President wants me to ask nicely, the response is this. Please, Mr. President, do… pic.twitter.com/kWskJGS3n5
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026

Doocy’s second question was blunt in wondering if the President’s worried the various America 250 celebrations later this year on the National Mall will be ruined by an putrid Potomac stench:

.@PDoocy: “To your point about that, there are a lot of events coming up for America 250. The president wants people from all over to come to the nation's capital. Is he worried that by this summer the Potomac River will still smell like poop?”@PressSec @KarolineLeavitt: “He is… pic.twitter.com/A4cIdHkUKW

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026 ">

Rewinding to the beginning of the briefing, Leavitt opened in part with a lengthy statement on the state of the economy and the Trump successes downplayed or ignored by the elite media:

WATCH: @PressSec @KarolineLeavitt opens Wednesday’s press briefing with a MASSIVE tally of economic wins under President Trump...

“We’re seeing promising signs every day that 2026 is going to be a record successful year for the American people, just as President Trump promised… pic.twitter.com/0o7yq2quUM

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026 ">

Inside Sources scored the “new media seat,” sending managing editor Michael Graham to ask about energy prices in the blue-dominated Northeast and plans for an Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) facility in Leavitt’s home state of New Hampshire:

NEW: @InsideSourcesDC’s @IAMMGraham was today’s “new media seat” recipient at today’s White House press briefing....

Graham: “So, you mentioned gas. We didn’t mention natural gas. And back where you live, your friends and family are paying among the highest prices for natural… pic.twitter.com/QgcpzW9Rdk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026

.@InsideSourcesDC’s @IAMMGraham: “So, right down the street from your alma mater, St. Anslem College, there’s talk about building an ICE facility that’s causing a lot of political [drama] in New Hampshire And for the Republican governor, Kelly Ayotte. Seem to be some… pic.twitter.com/ENjYCApUoq
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2026

Later on, Beni Rae Harmony with our friends at Real America’s Voice and then Univision’s Pedro Rojas brought up two of the latest far-left lunacy in deep blue states vis-à-vis illegal immigration (click “expand”):

HARMONY: So, Governor JB Pritzer just recently signed the bill — the law went into effect in January that is supposedly going to allocate about $2.5 billion to illegals to go to college on financial aid in the state of Illinois. What is the White House’s reaction to this? Illinois is already, by 2027, they’re supposed to have a $3 billion deficit. What’s your reaction to that?

LEAVITT: Yeah, we’ll have to take a look at that. I would say the President certainly thinks that Governor Pritzker is not doing a very good job of managing his state as evidenced by not only the waste, fraud, and abuse but also the crime in the city of Chicago that, unfortunately, Governor Pritzker has refused to pick up the phone call — phone and called the White House and ask for help on, which is something his residents want him to do, but he refuses to do for political reasons. As for the specific money, we’ll take a look and get you an answer.

(....)

ROJAS: Governor Moore in Maryland said he was ending the law enforcement cooperation with ICE and, by doing that, a lot of local sheriffs are not happy about that. In fact, they met today in Annapolis to come up with legal action. What is the message of the White House to those sheriffs and to the residents of Maryland?

LEAVITT: Well, first of all, it’s another despicable action by Governor Moore. Why would you prevent your state and local law enforcement with cooperating with federal law enforcement? If you just ask them — to your point, if you ask sheriffs across the country if they want to have that level of cooperation and coordination with the federal government, of course they do. It makes their jobs easier, it keeps them out of hostile and dangerous environments. It allows them to detain criminals who have committed heinous crimes in our country with — with the most safe circumstances possible. So, the President, of course, continues to stand on the side of law enforcement and this is another just horrible and frankly political action taken by Governor Wes Moore, and unfortunately, the people of his state are going to reap the consequences of it.

To see the relevant transcript from the February 18 briefing, click here.

Big Four News Apps, Including Apple News, Go Silent on FTC Apple Rebuke

Newsbusters

Big Four News Apps, Including Apple News, Go Silent on FTC Apple Rebuke

Catherine Salgado

February 19th, 2026 2:59 PM

For eight days after the Federal Trade Commission challenged Apple News on its bias, neither Apple nor the rest of the Big Four News Apps linked to a single story on the federal scrutiny despite its massive implications and widespread media attention .

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Feb. 11, right on the heels of a bombshell MRC study showing that Apple News did not have even one right-leaning article in its morning editions in January (620-0). Both Ferguson’s letter and MRC’s study sparked widespread media coverage, including stories from the New York Post and even left-leaning media such as The Washington Post, The Associated Press, CBS News, Business Insiderand The New York Times.

Today I sent a letter to Tim Cook expressing my concerns about allegations that Apple News has, unbeknownst to its users, systematically promoted news articles from left-wing news outlets and suppressed content from conservative publications. pic.twitter.com/xXCxNgRbpc
— Andrew Ferguson (@AFergusonFTC) February 11, 2026

“This is no accident,” MRC Free Speech VP Dan Schneider said of the Big Four News Apps’ blackout. “There were dozens of stories from both left and right-leaning outlets that these tech giants could have published. This was one of the biggest national stories of the week but anybody getting their news from the apps would have never known of it.”

ICYMI: FTC Chair Ferguson Puts Apple News on Notice after MRC Exposés & Apple News Continues Rejection of Right-Leaning Outlets in January

Notably, Ferguson had specifically called on Apple News to take action in his letter. While stating the “FTC is not the speech police,” and that he cannot require specific news curation, he reminded the Big Tech company “of your obligations under the FTC Act.”

He added, “Any act or practice by Apple News to suppress or promote news articles based on the perceived ideological or political viewpoint of the article or publication, if inconsistent with Apple‘s terms of service or the reasonable expectations of consumers, may violate the FTC Act.” Ferguson advised Apple to apply the FTC Act requirements to Apple News.

While Ferguson cited a November MRC studyshowing Apple News promoted only one right-leaning article in November, MRC has done numerous studies since then to illustrate blatant bias. Apple News is particularly guilty, but so also are the others in the Big Four News Apps. For instance, on Feb. 13, MRC revealed that it took Apple News 100 days to put a right-leaning outlet’s article in its morning articles.

In January, MRC found Yahoo News did not include a single right-leaning article in its top 20 for 16 days of the month. Likewise, Google News included only three percent of right-leaning outlets’ content in its top 20 morning editions throughout January.

Methodology: During the time period Feb. 11 - Feb. 18, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 AllSides-rated news stories featured on Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News each day at approximately 8:30 AM ET.

57-0: Apple News Coverage of Immigration Omits Right-Leaning Outlets in Early February

Newsbusters

57-0: Apple News Coverage of Immigration Omits Right-Leaning Outlets in Early February

Heather Moon

February 19th, 2026 1:58 PM

As eyes worldwide were turning to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Apple News editors pushed stories on immigration — including ICE and the Department of Homeland Security — relying on leftist and center outlets while excluding right-leaning media altogether.

Over the first two weeks of February 2026, Apple News ran 57 headlines, all from leftist or center news outlets, about immigration, ICE and the threat to DHS funding. Apple News’s ICE, DHS and immigration coverage accounted for 20 percent of the total headlines that Apple ran in its daily morning top 20 news stories. Not a single story about this highly partisan topic came from a right-leaning outlet as determined by AllSides media bias ratings.

Apple News relied the most on the following elitist media outlets to push a leftist narrative on immigration during the period analyzed:

The Associated Press - 10
The Washington Post - 8
NBC News - 5
Apple - 4
National Public Radio (NPR) - 3
The Wall Street Journal - 3

Examples of biased headlines highlighted by Apple News include: “Hard hats and dummy plates: Reports of ICE ruses add to fears in Minnesota;” “Migrants languish in US detention centers facing dire conditions and prolonged waits” from the Associated Press and “‘A profound sense of being hunted’: with all eyes on Minneapolis, ICE arrests continue quietly across the US” from The Guardian.

Apple News’s coverage of the immigration topic nearly doubled its Olympics coverage over the first two weeks of February, though the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, began during the same time period and is held only once every four years. Apple News pushed just under 12% of its total daily top 20 morning headlines on the Olympics.

And to make matters worse, Apple News did not use a single right-leaning outlet in its Olympics coverage either.

Instead, it offered politically-charged headlines from elitist media outlets such as: “Climate change is making the Winter Olympics harder to host” from The Washington Post; “Team USA, Vance Booed in Frosty Reception at Italy’s Winter Olympics” from The Wall Street Journal and “US skater Amber Glenn faces fallout over politics and issues with music copyright after Olympic gold” from The Associated Press.

The findings for the first two weeks of February 2026 continue to demonstrate that Apple News editors consistently suppress the right-leaning media perspective on controversial topics instead of providing balance. Given the tumultuous nature of events surrounding the immigration situation, it is even more important for the Big Four News Apps (Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News) to provide balance.

According to a report from the Reuters Institute, “engagement with traditional media sources such as TV, print, and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators grows,” particularly in the United States. Indeed, according to Pew Research Center, 86% of Americans turn to their digital devices for news “at least sometimes.” With Apple News coming preinstalled on every iPhone and Google News being standard on Android devices, 99.74% of U.S. smartphone users are exposed to at least one of the Big Four News Apps by default.

Methodology: During the time period Feb. 1 - 14, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories featured on Apple News each day at approximately 8:30 AM ET. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Apple News and analyzed the results. MRC researchers analyzed the headlines of each story to determine the total number of headlines that focused on immigration, and the total number of headlines that focused on the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Immigration stories analyzed included headlines focused on ICE, DHS, the DHS government shutdown and immigration generally.)

Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

New York, which requires no ID to vote, tells residents they need two forms of ID (and Social Security card) to become volunteer snow shovelers

Not the Bee

Haaaaaa.

If you haven't heard, New York City has been struggling this winter to clear its streets of snow.

Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been blamed for mishandling the city's response.

To "fix" the problem, Mamdani is asking the residents of what used to be a First-World city to shovel the streets themselves.

A judge was so mad about a lawyer’s use of AI that she immediately ruled against the client

Not the Bee

In a warning to all lawyers, a New York judge just threw the book at a client because their lawyer used A.I. to write his briefs, and of course, A.I. made up a huge chunk of them.

The story starts all the way back in October of 2024, some Fast and the Furious wannabes highjacked one of Flycatcher Toys' trucks on its way to Walmart for delivery.

Report: Biden's White House coordinated with DOJ on Mar-a-Lago raid, contradicting past claims

Not the Bee

Remember when the Biden White House told us they didn't coordinate with the DOJ in the August 2022 raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago and that nobody at the White House even knew it was going to happen?

Welp...

I'll let Trump explain 👇

From that Just The News article:

Kansas law would require kids to be potty trained before kindergarten

Not the Bee

Kansas, we're really having to legislate this?

Yep, this is a bill in the legislature telling parents they must have their kids potty trained before kindergarten.

Here's the Kansas Reflector:

Kansas lawmakers are considering a bill that would require kindergarteners to be potty trained before starting school, pulling the decision-making power about how to handle those students away from school districts.

The House bill was introduced to reduce distractions in classrooms, supporters say. Opponents worry it would create a barrier for vulnerable children to access education, and argue the decision should be left to school districts.

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