My wife Lori is one of the most astute observers of the American political and cultural scene that I know. In addition to being well-read and plugged into social media, she’s also a Baylor University journalism graduate (back when the J-school in Waco actually taught objective reporting rather than trafficking in absurd Trump- bashing hysteria.) She is not, therefore, prone to spending a lot of time on wild, unsubstantiated rumors from online kooks.
But Saturday evening, she informed me that social media posts and online chatter were “blowing up everywhere” with stories that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been killed in attacks by Iran and that videos were circulating everywhere that purported to show Bibi’s family grieving over his death. (One other post stated that Vladimir Putin had also tweeted that Netanyahu was dead.)
Personally, I would entrust second-hand reports about tweets Putin had made with more credibility than on-air updates from CNN. But that’s a story for another column.
I began scouring online sources…and I didn’t have to look very far. One video—featuring on-camera a breathless man in a black fedora hat, which observant Jews sport—showed “Tel Aviv” ablaze after missiles landed throughout the city, “because the air defenses over Tel Aviv are no longer operational.” He added that “The Iranians are hitting at will with the most powerful ballistic missiles. 50 ballistic missiles hit Tel Aviv last evening alone.”
The goofball in this video—purporting to be breaking news that no other media outlets on Earth are reporting because “anybody releasing a picture or video of the damage in Tel Aviv is immediately sentenced to 5 years in prison.” Right. The BBC, Sky News, CNN and all other broadcast and print organizations are covering up the collapse of the Iron Dome and carnage that has “turned Tel Aviv into Gaza”…but this guy with his homemade video is the one person revealing what’s really going on. And talk about mixed messaging: while he’s decked out to look like an observant Jew, he’s pontificating in an accent that—if you close your eyes—you would swear is the Scottish brogue of the Fat Bastard character in Mike Myers’ comedy film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Obviously, this “reporter” and the “actual video” he’s distributing is the latest—and most dangerous—manifestation of Artificial Intelligence. We all laugh at cute videos of Golden Doodles talking about their masters feeding them treats, or President Trump as a baby dressing down infant versions of Rand Paul or Jasmine Crockett…but this new, dark turn into wartime propaganda reveals the dangers inherent in AI, as well.
During World War II, when America and the world were threatened by Japan’s emperor Hirohito, battling the forces of freedom in the Pacific combat theater, Radio Tokyo hired a dozen English-speaking female broadcasters (collectively known as Tokyo Rose) to deliver Japanese propaganda. These cruel messages were beamed onto ships and military bases, allegedly delivering words from wives and girlfriends designed to demoralize the troops. “Your wife is lonely and has taken up with other men” was a typical message… interspersed with music and fake “news” of how the “Imperial forces of Japan” were scoring victories and defeating American troops everywhere.
Of course, back in those days, the American media was still run for the most part by patriotic leaders who voluntarily worked closely with the Office of War Information (OWI) to help mobilize the public in support of defeating the Axis powers of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito. Overwhelmingly, news coverage promoted national unity and encouraged recruitment for America’s armed services.
In 2026, mainstream media’s primary functions are to oppose the deportation of illegal aliens and to tear down anything related to President Donald J. Trump. They—like the AI video depicted above showing Tel Aviv reduced to rubble like Gaza—exist in a parallel universe where America is always racist and portrayed as a nation that suppresses the downtrodden.
TV reports and feature articles hysterically parrot Democratic Party talking points as “news”… including the canard that illegal immigrants must therefore not be deported because they built America. (They didn’t. Pilgrims who courageously broke from England—and later settlers who populated undeveloped Western regions of the United States—did the building. Illegals broke the law and snuck into America with the help of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, whose vision mirrors that of 100 percent of today’s Democrats: we must raise taxes on American citizens to support welfare programs and medical benefits for freeloaders who refuse to assimilate.)
Hirohito—the so-called “Prince Of The Rising Sun”—and his lackeys at Radio Tokyo must somewhere be laughing at how hard they had to work to infiltrate and demoralize Americans with Tokyo Rose broadcasts during World War II…even though they lost and were defeated in the end. (Sorry, Gen Xers. No “microaggressions” or cultural misappropriation here, just facts.)
Had they been around today, all they’d have needed would be a few laptops, some AI skills, and a cadre of anti-Semitic hollowheads in academia to undermine America’s current efforts to disarm Iran’s blueprint for nuclear blackmail of the world. They could join ABC News, CNN and other Fifth Columnists whose mission appears to be using their powerful, unfettered access to our airwaves to smear the United States at every turn.
If this is, in fact, “the nation illegal immigrants built”… that’s one more solid reason to deport them.
Tom Tradup is V.P./News and Talk Programming at Dallas-based Salem Radio Network. He can be reached at ttradup@srnradio.com