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Media Matters Has Legal Matters to Deal With, and CNN Has a Problem With Stock Market Records Being Set

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jul 25, 2025
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

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Reporting on the Mirror – MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA

  • Paying their bills does not seem to matter.

The gang at Media Matters appears to be struggling. We covered last year when they had significant layoffs as a result of a costly lawsuit brought by Elon Musk. Now, they are at risk of losing their legal representation in that lawsuit. Mark Elias, and his Democrat-snuggling law firm, has been representing MMFA, but that may soon be ending. 

In a communication with the media outfit, the firm has offered a payment scheme, but if the outfit does not make a significant payment soon, then the representation will halt:

Ezra Reese, the chair of Elias’s political law group, wrote in an email to Mr. Carusone and Media Matters’s lead fund-raiser, Mary Pat Bonner. Mr. Reese offered to wipe away about half of the unpaid tally in exchange for payment of $2.25 million within about a week. If the group did not commit to the payment plan, Mr. Reese wrote, his firm would expect full payment of the original amount and would “go pens down and take steps to withdraw from the case by the end of the month.”

Stealth Story Evolution – PBS / NPR

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  • Now, you say that thing we have called to happen for years and you fought against is actually happening?! Go figure…

Previously, we covered how PBS declared that after the government funding for public broadcasters had been yanked it wasn’t going anywhere. It was as if the years of mewling about the threats and dangers that would happen were all melodramatic garbage.

Now, we get a report that after the budgets were slashed for both PBS and NPR, the two networks are enjoying a surge of donations, the likes of which they have never encountered before.

It is almost as if all that time we said “You are able to go ahead and get yourselves funded,” we had been correct all along.

Both Kinds of Standards – CNN

  • Okay, it seems as if you are saying this is actually bad news…

It has been a comedy of partisan desperation to see CNN attempting to report on the economy since Trump retook office. Basically, any report of good economic returns has to be spun as bad news. Unexpected jobs reports have led to investigations as to what is behind it. The network was disappointed when the Iran bombing actually led to lower oil prices. And the best when there was the promise that tariffs would cause a spike in automobile prices, then two months later automobile prices remaining flat was said to be a bad economic sign. This from the same reporter.

One other indicator that has rankled CNN has been after months of promised doom, the stock market continues to hit record highs. And so, in predictable fashion, this too needs to have negativity attached to it. Recall now, during Bidenomics, that all the negative metrics in the country were countered by the stock market performing well. Today, however, this is reinterpreted – this is a sign of greed taking place, according to the network.

Anti-Social Media – GAWKER

  • Now see?! THIS is why nobody misses you!

In another outlet/lawsuit development, we have the recent passing of Hulk Hogan. The former wrestler and performer has a varied history, one in which involves a conflict with the aforementioned former web outlet. 

In fact, Hogan is the reason that Gawker is a former site, as he sued them into oblivion when they published a sex tape involving him en flagrante. It was for this reason that one former staffer at the site was less than human in declaring they would be dancing on Hulk’s grave. Because, seemingly in their opinion, Gawker was completely blameless in its actions. You get the sense they were tired of the blowback given the post has been deleted.

Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN

  • You kind of exposed the playbook there, John.

We continue to be amused by the bifurcated approach in the press to news stories this week. On the one hand, they are calling for the release of documents (the Epstein Files) while on the other, they are supremely bothered by the release of documents (Tulsi Gabbard’s Russian collusion releases).

It is patently obvious that wanting the Epstein Files released is not about transparency but about hanging Donald Trump as culpable of…something. John King actually tipped his hand to this goal, as he came out with a “report,” saying how the MAGA people he knows (really, John?) have all said they are NOT switching allegiance from Trump over this controversy that has mostly been cooked up to a boil in the press.