BREAKING: Kentucky Gov. Declares State of Emergency After Multi-Car Train Derailment, Chemical Spill

Bob Hoge reporting for RedState 

In a scene eerily similar to what we saw in East Palestine, Ohio in February, a major train derailment occurred in Southeastern Kentucky Wednesday which resulted in a chemical spill. Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in Rockcastle County following the multi-car train derailment.

In a statement, the governor wrote:

“By issuing a state of emergency, we are ensuring that every state resource is available to help keep our families safe,” Gov. Beshear said. “Please stay clear of this area as state, local and CSX officials respond.”

The state’s Emergency Operations Center has also been activated to Level 4. The state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet Emergency Response Team is also on scene.

The Governor has also activated the state’s price gouging laws to protect families from grossly overpriced goods and services. With the state of emergency in place, consumers in the commonwealth can report price gouging to the Office of the Attorney General. Under state law, price gougers can be held accountable.

The Disaster Distress Helpline is a 24/7, year-round, confidential crisis counseling and emotional support resource for survivors, responders and anyone in the United States struggling with distress or other mental health concerns related to any natural or human-caused disaster.

###

Many details are still unknown, but one news outlet is reporting that at least 15 train cars were involved in the incident and that some contained hazardous chemicals:

The tweet continues:

A CSX train, carrying hazardous chemicals has derailed, resulting in the evacuation of the mentioned towns. At least 15 train cars were involved in the accident including two sulfur dioxide cars that were breached. Causing the spillage of their contents from the wreckage. One member of the two-person crew was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Police are strongly encouraging residents to evacuate the area.

U.S. Route 25 was blocked in both directions in the area due to the derailment, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet 8, said in a post on Facebook. At least one residence has been evacuated and it's expected that there will have to be more. 

Transportation Safety Board Proposes Dystopian Technology To Limit Your Speed While Driving

Tristan Justice reporting for The Federalist 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling on “intelligent speed assistance technology” (ISA) to be mandatory “in all new cars” after a fatal accident in Nevada killed nine people.

In a press release last week, the federal agency outlined how ISA “uses a car’s GPS location compared with a database of posted speed limits and its onboard cameras to help ensure safe and legal speeds.”

“Passive ISA systems warn a driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit through visual, sound, or haptic alerts, and the driver is responsible for slowing the car,” the agency explained. “Active systems include mechanisms that make it more difficult, but not impossible, to increase the speed of a vehicle above the posted speed limit and those that electronically limit the speed of the vehicle to fully prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit.”

The NTSB board issued the recommendations last week after a 2018 Dodge Challenger rammed into a minivan at 103 mph in North Las Vegas in January 2022. The driver, however, was high on cocaine and PCP.

“This crash is the latest in a long line of tragedies we’ve investigated where speeding and impairment led to catastrophe, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in last week’s press release. “We know the key to saving lives is redundancy, which can protect all of us from human error that occurs on our roads. What we lack is the collective will to act on NTSB safety recommendations.”

While legal speed limits are capped at 85 mph in the U.S., vehicles are designed to go far faster to allow safe passing and escape in emergency situations. The capacity to go faster also puts less strain on vehicles at lower speeds.

The NTSB released the proposal weeks after the Republican House majority helped Democrats preserve their “kill switch” mandate for new vehicles earlier this month. All cars produced in 2026 and onward will be required to implement technology that can automatically disable the vehicle “if impairment is detected” after 19 Republicans joined Democrats to kill an amendment defunding the mandate.

The NTSB’s ISA mandate, combined with the “kill switch” requirement embedded in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, lays the groundwork for corporate and government access to monitor and interfere with personal movement.

[LISTEN: The Dystopic Power Grab Nobody Is Talking About]

In California, activists have cited climate change as justification for new standards limiting transit. The California Air Resources Board released new regulations last summer banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. The following week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom begged residents not to charge electric vehicles during a heat wave so the power grid would not become overwhelmed.

X22, And we Know, and more- November 22

 

The Nightmare of Air Travel Symbolizes Social Chaos

posted by Kurt Schlichter at TownhallVIP 

I write this from 36,000 feet as I mourn for my country and my civilization. The current state of air travel provides the perfect illustration of the degeneration of our society from greatness to mediocrity to impending chaos. The week of Thanksgiving is the perfect time to complain like a little whiny brat about how this component of our existence, and so much else in our lives, seems to be in a downward spiral of failure. It is just another thing that has gotten worse, and that’s partly the establishment's fault. After all, the establishment runs things, like our government and our institutions and our airlines, and making things like flying not suck is its most basic task. It is a task the establishment has failed at miserably.

I would like to put it all on our purported leaders, but I have to concede that some of the sucking of air travel is a direct result of normal people. Sometimes they tolerate failure – look how many have and will vote for crusty Joe Biden – and sometimes they are dumb themselves. There is a lot of blame to go around, and we need to start assigning it as well as consequences or else we will not figuratively pull up and we will crash into the ground. This ordered society of ours is not the natural state of man and it balances on the edge, ready to fall off into total chaos.

Perhaps I am biased by having grown up in the best of times, the '70s and '80s and '90s, when America peaked. Sure, there were problems, but we got past them. We never thought things could get worse and, as we grew up in the analog era, they didn’t. They just got better. TV got better. Old sitcoms were vaguely amusing. Then, with shows like “Cheers” and “Seinfeld,” they got actively funny. Computers began as calculators. They got better, becoming Macs and PCs. Cars? Well, you can’t top the '60s cars, but the '70s cars like the Pinto and the Vega became sleeker and better in the '80s and '90s. You know what you don’t see that we used to? Cars at the side of the road just having broken down. It happens, sure, but not like it used to. 

And air travel improved in that way, to give credit where credit is due. Planes used to crash all the time and now we have not had a death from an American commercial liner crash since 2009. But, other than that, it’s pretty much worse.

Flying used to be an adventure. It was special. But as deregulation cut prices, it stopped being special. Everyone could do it and now everyone does. The security lines are endless, and you have to pay extra for TSA Pre-Check or that Clear thing that intermittently works to avoid an extra half-hour in line. Even then, you’re likely to get irradiated or felt up in case you are packing heat. Nothing like pulling the retired Army colonel aside for an extra colonoscopy just in case he decides to go rogue!

The terminals are packed too. Try getting a coffee. The line is longer and slower than a queue at a Maricopa County polling place. 

And the lounges, which you need to pay for if you travel a lot, are packed. The macchiato machine is mobbed. Want an upgrade? Ha! There are 47 people ahead of you on the list! Hey, when everyone is a Super Special Elite Premier Member, no one is!

And loading the plane? I’ve been to better organized Who concerts…literally. Nothing like holding up the line while dingus discovers he needs to scan his boarding pass and decides that right up at the counter is the place to dig it out instead of during the 20 minutes he was standing there waiting. And then there is the inevitable argument with the woman in Group 12 who tries to slip into Group 1.

Every airline is Spirit now, with crowds of rude and dumb people acting like knuckleheads. There are more misbehavior-at-the-gate clips on the web than cat videos. But there are bright spots. Today, a diverse group of passengers got together to help a confused old lady find her way to her gate – Americans have not totally lost their natural friendliness. But how many times have you tried to get on a plane and it’s like half the people have never flown before? You have women trying to load overloaded steamer trunks into overloaded overhead bins, while grown men stand there looking at their phones instead of helping. Dude, lift the damn bag for her, if not because you’re a man then because you are holding us all up.

When is the last time you sat next to an empty seat? Every flight is full now, thanks to the algorithms the airlines use. How come their algorithms are so effective but the ones on Twitter/X send me ads for Cheech & Chong dope chews? And the seats seem designed for Frodo Baggins. I do generally have good experiences with the flight crews, and I pity them for having to remind people over and over again not to start unloading their bags while the plane is rolling to the gate. Oh, and don’t get me started on the genius who decides to wait until he gets on-board to execute his 15-minute dinner download in the one working toilet while a dozen people writhe and stamp waiting.

And then there is the fact that a lot of people dress poorly when flying. I am not advocating the old suit and tie vibe of my childhood – you really did dress up to fly, and when you got off you smelled like an ashtray. But here’s an idea: pants, shirts, shoes. I do not need to see another tween with “Juicy” emblazoned on her booty shorts – parents, try parenting! Of course, her mom’s inevitably got more tatts than the 1^st Marine Division and dad’s busy calling his parole officer.

Oh, and little kids on flights. Surprise – I am not mad at them. They are kids. They cry and act like kids. As long as the parents aren’t ignoring their antics, your obligation is to cut them slack. Kids are annoying on planes. That’s the price you pay for being in society. Deal. Again, this assumes attentive parents at least trying to parent. The ones who find little Kaden’s ceaseless kicking of his seat delightful deserve the D.B. Cooper treatment sans parachute. Oh, and silence their electronics.

What can be done about this sorry state of affairs? Things can be better organized at the institutional level in the airports and onboard, but we citizens can do our part too. Pay attention and have situational awareness. Be ready to perform tasks like showing your boarding pass and loading your carry-on. Help people around you. Have patience with the young and old, if not the dumb. Do not make things harder than necessary on staff or other people. Smile and be polite, even if you want to scream. In short, our part is to not act like idiots.

Gun Sales Climb to Record Levels Amid Increased Fears About Crime

posted by Jeff Charles at RedStateVIP 

Gun ownership has been on the rise in America for years, and it does not appear that it is slowing down anytime soon. A recent poll indicated that Americans are still purchasing firearms at record rates.

Meanwhile, concerns about rising crime rates remain constant, with an alarming number of Americans indicating that they are afraid to walk the streets alone.

This is no coincidence. Even further, it shows that more people recognize that they are responsible for their own safety.

An NBC News national poll revealed that record numbers of Americans report owning firearms.

More than half of American voters -- 52% -- say they or someone in their household owns a gun, per the latest NBC News national poll.

That's the highest share of voters who say that they or someone in their household owns a gun in the history of the NBC News poll, on a question dating back to 1999.

In 2019, 46% of Americans said that they or someone in their household owned a gun, per an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. And in February 2013, that share was 42%.

"In the last ten years, we've grown [10 points] in gun ownership. That's a very stunning number," said Micah Roberts of Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm that co-conducted the poll with members of the Democratic polling firm Hart Research.

"By and large, things don't change that dramatically that quickly when it comes to something as fundamental as whether you own a gun," Roberts added.

Accompanying this data are heightened fears of becoming a victim of violent crime. Gallup released the findings of a survey showing that worries about crime are the highest they have been in three decades.

Forty percent of Americans, the most in three decades, say they would be afraid to walk alone at night within a mile of their home. This indicator of crime fears last reached this level in 1993, when, during one of the worst crime waves in U.S. history, 43% said they would be afraid. Between that year and 2021, an average of 35% of adults have feared for their safety within a mile of home, with the annual results ranging between 29% and 39%.

Even more telling is that a significant percentage of respondents reported avoiding certain activities due to fears about crime.

Fear of crime most commonly constrains people's mobility and possibly consumerism by preventing them from driving into certain areas of the town or city where they live -- 34% say they have ever avoided doing this. Relatedly, 31% say they avoid visiting central areas of nearby cities. Only compounding the potential damper crime puts on economic activity, 17% avoid going to shopping malls.

Some Americans’ physical wellbeing is also jeopardized, as 31% say fear of crime has ever prevented them from taking walks, jogging or running alone in their area, and 17% say it keeps them from going to local parks.

Americans may also be missing out on entertainment or social interactions, as fear of crime prevents large segments from attending concerts and other crowded events (28%) and talking to strangers (28%).

Respondents were shown a list containing these precautionary behaviors and asked to select all that apply to them. Overall, 66% of adults have avoided at least one of the activities due to fear of crime, while 34% say they have avoided none of them.

According to a mid-year report on crime rates from the Council on Criminal Justice, there are valid reasons why Americans should be concerned, even if there are indications that violent crime is on a downward trend. The study showed that the number of homicides decreased by 9.4 percent in the first half of 2023. However, the rate is still 24 percent higher than it was in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking the data into account, it is not surprising that more Americans are becoming gun owners. Even though there are promising signs, the rate of crime is still far too high for many to feel comfortable engaging in normal activities. Moreover, it seems that it is even more clear that relying on law enforcement will not keep people safe, which is why people are taking their safety into their own hands.

REPORT: Car That Exploded at US/Canada Border Was Packed With Explosives, FBI Investigating as Terrorism

 There are now reports that the vehicle that blew up at an inspection station at the Rainbow Bridge, border crossing between the U.S. and Canada was packed with "a lot of explosives," according to Fox's Alexis McAdams.  

McAdams also reports that the vehicle traveled toward the Customs and Border Patrol building near the toll kiosks then exploded, and that the FBI is now the lead agency on the ground. Sources have told McAdams that the event is being investigated as an attempted terror attack.

Photos show what looks like the twisted wreckage at the inspection station at the bridge.   

All government buildings in the areas have been evacuated. The two in the car are dead, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has confirmed that one of their officers was injured. 

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/11/22/report-vehicle-that-blew-up-rainbow-bridge-was-packed-with-explosives-n2166697   

Barack Obama Is Still Forcing His Unwanted ‘Change’ On America

Keep your eyes peeled for signs of ‘changemakers’ who pretend to come to ‘depolarize,’ but are really seeking to colonize you.

Stella Morabito reporting for The Federalist

Back in February, former President Barack Obama launched an effort called the “Change Collective.” If you’re not familiar with it now, you probably will be soon. Supporters describe it as a “new community-based leadership initiative” meant to “empower emerging leaders to bring people together.” At the forefront of the effort will be “local changemakers across the country.”

I’ll go out on a limb and say its endgame is the enforcement of a collectivist narrative, the abolition of local control, and the top-down centralized control of all communities. After all, that’s the pattern of every Obama policy, most notably health care and education. Naturally, Obama put a hearts-and-flowers spin on the project:

Currently, the initiative focuses on urban communities, with pilot programs in Chicago, Detroit, and Jackson, Mississippi. But the ultimate goal is to flood the nooks and crannies of all America’s local communities with “changemakers” and “influencers” who have been trained to recruit everybody into accepting a woke narrative and to silence any voice of dissent. That’s always what socialists mean when they claim to “bring people together.”

Consider first how this effort fits organizationally. The Change Collective is one of many groups listed under the umbrella organization Civic Nation, headed by Obama Foundation Chief Executive Officer Valerie Jarrett. Civic Nation serves as a clearinghouse for the numerous hard-left efforts to consolidate political power — from former First Lady Michelle Obama’s “When We All Vote” ballot box-stuffing operation to all previous campaigns related to the Obamas’ ongoing project to fundamentally transform America. 

The Change Collective was inaugurated this year almost simultaneously with the Obama Foundation’s Leaders Program in the United States, several years after the Obama Foundation initiated Leaders Programs in Africa (2018), Asia and the Pacific (2019), and Europe (2020). This is an effort to force change at the community level, parallel with national and global efforts. 

Consider also the term “change collective” and what it supposedly means: “to build a more equitable, welcoming, and inclusive democracy” that connects people of all persuasions. This is an Orwellian vision that might sound fine to politically untrained ears, but it represents a new phase in Alinskyite community organizing. The jargon is not hard to translate. It is “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in a nutshell, the same woke agenda of DEI that requires identity politics and political correctness to be baked into every policy at every level.

Indeed, the introductory words “empower emerging leaders to bring people together” literally mean that Obama’s organization serves to give power to new (“emerging”) leaders — kicking out those with “old” ideas — in order to bring everyone into its fold. You won’t have any choice in the matter. It’s the same process that results in attacks on free speech in all institutions, especially in academia.

Political activists are being trained to turn every local community into a satellite of the Washington, D.C., bureaucracy and to turn every little red community to blue. Community organizing begins in urban areas, but the endgame is the homogenization of all of America, including rural America, and ultimately all of the globe. There is no room for diversity of thought, no room for the uniqueness of individuals. 

How will they do it? By connecting with people on a personal level.

Exploiting the Power of Relationships

As Obama explained in his one-minute video, the Change Collective is “a way to bring emerging leaders from different identities and backgrounds together and help them build relationships and solve problems in their communities. … Because real change happens one person, one community, one connection at a time. And we all need to learn how to better work with folks who have different backgrounds and beliefs.”

So the program intends to “change” those “different backgrounds and beliefs” to align with its woke agenda. And, apparently, it will do so in a time-tested way: through persuasion and influence via one-on-one personal relationships.

Conservatives would do well to understand this. Real change actually does happen one person at a time. It does happen one community, one relationship at a time. If more people understood this in the proper context — with a sense of goodwill instead of in the framework of manipulating people — America would be a freer and kinder place.

Intent is key. One side offers real friendship and treats each person as a fellow human being worthy of dignity. The other side sees people as tools, befriending them for the purpose of pushing a political agenda in which their individuality and individual rights are abolished. One side argues: Do what you want, but do no harm, and respect the right to think differently. The other side ultimately argues: You’re doing harm, do what I tell you, and if you don’t I’ll have you reported and canceled.

Sadly, influencers of the Change Collective won’t pursue relationships in the organic and spontaneous way that people of goodwill instinctively understand those interactions. Rather, they’d have to do so aggressively and purposefully. They’d first “listen,” and then get to work persuading. If the changemakers do their job as trained, at the end of the day there’s no room for diversity of thought.

Changing through Personal Influence

When First Lady Michelle Obama addressed Oberlin’s graduating class of 2015, she also spoke about the power of personal one-on-one interactions to influence and change a person’s point of view. She advised the graduates to seek out people who disagreed with them politically instead of hanging out with like-minded people. Here is what she said:

Today, I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find. Because so often, throughout our history, those have been the places where progress really happens — the places where minds are changed, lives transformed, where our great American story unfolds. 

Can you see where Michelle was going with this? She understands that the people we personally know and trust have enormous influence on our thinking and our speech. However, she is not talking about spontaneous relationships that allow for truly open conversation in a spirit of mutual respect. Rather, she is looking to recruit an organized army of proselytizers — “influencers” — who can cultivate trust on a personal scale in order to deliberately bring people to convert to her narrative and values.

Freedom lovers must learn to tune in to the underlying truth of the power of personal relationships. But we must do so with intentions of goodwill when reaching out to others who don’t share our views. And we must express our true beliefs without the self-censorship that political correctness demands. This is the only way to counter left-wing invasions of good-hearted communities that use the goodwill of Americans against them in order to undermine their individual freedoms. Such personal manipulation is literally one of Alinsky’s rules for radicals.

So be a real friend to others, not an “influencer” who seeks to exploit people under the guise of friendship to push for a collectivist agenda. Keep your eyes peeled for signs of “changemakers” who pretend to come to “depolarize,” but are really seeking to colonize your town and your mind. 

We should be actively campaigning — in our own one-on-one ways — for a rebirth of true localism, civil society, and freedom. This means looking out for your neighbor’s well-being and minding your own business at the same time. It means caring for others without looking for political favors in return.

The Sacred Heart basilica lit up in red by Aide a l'Eglise en Detresse charity, Paris, France

 

Paris Sacré Coeur lit up red to highlight religious freedom violations worldwide  

WaPo Continues to Get It Wrong on the Israel-Hamas Conflict - Quiet Revisions Ensue

Brad Slager reporting for RedState 

Editors' notes, stealth edits, evolving headlines, and entries that are just so blatantly wrong that the press will not even bother to correct things out of a desire to hope no more notice is brought to the errors; these have been common practice across the media landscape since the October 7 attack on Israeli citizens. What is even more remarkable than these blatant misfires is that few appear willing to learn from their foibles. It is simply Churn-Spin-Repeat.

What is most glaring is that these are not simple logistical errors or misspellings from foreign locales – we are seeing major news reports being proven to be patently wrong. The latest was delivered this weekend by the Washington Post concerning the announcement of a brokered peace deal between the Israelis and Hamas. As reported by Karen DeYoung, it was said that a tentative agreement had been reached between the factions, one involving having 50 hostages exchanged for at least a temporary halt of the hostilities.

More than a couple of hours later, the story was “updated” — that is, it was edited but not announced as such. This was probably due to the National Security Council coming out to say it was still attempting to broker a deal, but nothing had been finalized. On Sunday, John Finer, a U.S. Deputy national security adviser, made the rounds on the talk circuit to say that the negotiations were still being hammered out — “On an issue as sensitive as this and as challenging is this, the mantra that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed really does apply.” 

So, with several administration officials willing to go on the record to say nothing has been finalized, how does WaPo come out with this definitive report? By Sunday afternoon, after being challenged and after White House voices came forward with “ongoing” type of language, the article was amended with a Correction, but one that only managed to muddle.

A previous version of this article, headline and accompanying news alert incorrectly characterized The Post’s reporting about the status of negotiations among Israel, Hamas and the United States to pause conflict for five days and free women and children held hostage in Gaza. The article stated that the parties had agreed to a tentative deal. In fact, Israel and Hamas were close to a U.S.-brokered agreement. The article has been corrected.

This seems quite a lot to get wrong. The headline and the news alerts did not reflect the reporting? How does this take place unless there was an intent to sell something else? How does the report incorrectly characterize the reporting?! This kind of wildly inappropriate journalism has been an ongoing issue for The Post. 

The paper was among the many who incorrectly reported on the infamous bombing of a hospital that was not, in fact, bombed. It struggled with the story of the Greek Orthodox church collapse, which is still standing. Then there is the Washington Post struggle over the IDF claims that Hamas is headquartered beneath the al-Shifa hospital. It is rather evident that the outlet is intent on casting Israel as the inappropriate aggressor at the location. Despite alluding to evidence such as a shaft opening at the location, as well as the body of an Israeli hostage found on site, the report refused to allow that Hamas was staged at the hospital.

Israel has yet to produce findings that corroborate its claims that al-Shifa sits atop a Hamas headquarters and was central to the militant group’s operations in northern Gaza.

It reports this despite the photographic evidence of weapons found in a bunker. Also, the US State Department, as well as the Pentagon, have affirmed that Hamas uses the hospital as a headquarters. This also is in conflict with years of media reports that have declared definitively that Hamas is staged there. One such media report was by…(get ready now)…The Washington Post.

The minister was turned away before he reached the hospital, which has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.

To have a basic fact such as this confirmed by numerous sources for years and yet debated today is already a serious problem. To have a news outlet defying its own previous reports on the very issue is rather astounding to see. But this is the nature of the press currently. There is this need to deny certain realities because of their desire to have Israel cast as the villain — even if this means denying realities that have been reported by the very same outlets.

Elon Musk Should Sue Media Matters Into Oblivion

Media Matters is part of a left-wing propaganda machine that wants one thing: to censor and silence everyone who dissents from its narrative.

by John Daniel Davidson for The Federalist

Over the weekend, Elon Musk said he plans to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters for America, a left-wing propaganda shop whose sole reason for existing is to churn out deceptive, fake studies designed to pressure large firms to pull advertising from media outlets and platforms that don’t toe the leftist line.

That’s precisely what Media Matters did last week when it released a bogus “report” alleging that X, formerly Twitter, runs ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to “pro-Nazi content.” Sure enough, after this report was published Thursday, Apple, IBM, and a bunch of other companies fell for the scam and announced they were pulling ads from X.

Then on Monday, Musk’s X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, alleging the organization “knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform.”

But of course, nothing about the Media Matters report was typical. The whole thing was contrived, a ruse that Musk quickly exposed. Essentially, Media Matters set up some fake X accounts and then curated the feeds to display controversial content. “Once they curated their feed,” explained X in a statement Musk posted early Saturday morning, “they repeatedly refreshed their timelines to find a rare instance of ads serving next to the content they chose to follow.”

To achieve their desired outcome, these accounts had to generate 13 times the number of ads served compared to a normal X user. As the lawsuit filed on Monday stated, “The end result was a feed precision-designed by Media Matters for a single purpose: to produce side-by-side ad/content placements that it could screenshot in an effort to alienate advertisers.”

The result that Media Matters got through manipulating X’s algorithm in this way was anything but organic; in the case of paid posts from IBM, Comcast, and Oracle, those posts appeared alongside “fringe content” for only one X user: Media Matters. “Not a single authentic user of the X platform saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to that content,” according to the lawsuit.

As X rightly noted, “These contrived experiences could be applied to any platform.”

The reason they were applied to X, however, has nothing to do with pro-Nazi content and everything to do with the fact that left-wing ideologues like the people at Media Matters don’t control X and can’t use it as a tool of censorship against their enemies. That’s it. Hiding behind the fig leaf of “research,” styling itself as a “watchdog group,” Media Matters is in the business of silencing its opponents by going after advertisers. The only thing it’s watching out for is dissent to crush.

Ginning up a bogus “study” to deplatform dissenting voices is a tactic we’re well familiar with here at The Federalist. Back in the summer of 2020, when Black Lives Matter riots were raging across the country, NBC News tried to pressure Google to pull its ads from our site based on a Media Matters-style hit job from a left-wing activist group in the United Kingdom.

Under the guise of reporting the news, NBC’s creepily named “Verification Unit” touted a report from a group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate that falsely claimed The Federalist was spreading dangerous lies about the rioting. The group’s specific tactic was to flag reader comments on certain articles and then accuse The Federalist of somehow endorsing the substance of those comments.

The geniuses over at NBC News, unbothered by the tawdry spectacle of one media outlet trying to get another demonetized, seized on the report and presented it to Google for comment. Did Google approve of its ads running on a site like The Federalist? After all, this left-wing group in the U.K. says The Federalist foments hate. Does Google support that?

It sounds stupid, but that’s what they did. There was no story there at all. It was pure activism, not journalism. And as it happens, I wrote one of the articles this left-wing activist group cited in its “report.” The headline of that article was, “The Media Are Lying to You About Everything, Including the Riots,” which was (and is) completely true. The irony that a legacy media outlet would then lie about what I argued in that piece in an attempt to hurt our publication seems to have been lost on the “Verification Unit” at NBC News.

Sadly, this is a pattern we have seen over and over again. What NBC News and the Center for Countering Digital Hate tried to do to us at The Federalist — impute guilt on the basis of third-party content and then pressure advertisers to pull out — is almost exactly what Media Matters has tried to do to X.

It should come as no surprise. Left-wing activists will do and say almost anything to suppress, censor, or shut down outlets and institutions they don’t control, that challenge the establishment narrative, and that push back against the media’s incessant lying. During Covid, they used ostensibly private institutions like the Stanford Internet Observatory to launder Department of Homeland Security censorship in an egregious attack on free speech. The federal government deputized Twitter and Facebook to carry out its censorship dirty work ahead of the 2020 election, and those companies dutifully complied.

But now they see that Musk won’t comply, which is why they’re going after X. That might prove to be a big mistake because Musk has the resources to fight back and go after groups like Media Matters. And Musk’s X isn’t the only one. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said Sunday his team was “looking into” the matter, and on Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his office had opened an investigation into Media Matters for potentially fraudulent activity.

We’ll see where all this goes, but it’s good to see that a group like Media Matters actually might be held accountable for its incessant deception in the service of crushing free speech. Anyone who cares about free speech and self-government should hope Media Matters gets sued and fined into oblivion. It’s a cancer on our civic life, masquerading as a nonprofit watchdog when its only purpose is to censor and throttle free speech by any means necessary. The sooner it’s gone, the better off the country will be.