Transcript

LIVE: Watchdog BLOWS WHISTLE on Media COLLAPSE under Trump

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 45 min · 9,148 words · 82 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "LIVE: Watchdog BLOWS WHISTLE on Media COLLAPSE under Trump", an episode of MeidasTouch published February 14, 2026 (45 min, about 9,148 words). It mentions 14 people, works and ideas, including Donald Trump, Project Censored, Mickey Huff, The State of the Free Press, 2026, Washington Post.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the striking contrast between soaring stock market indices like the Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ, which are at historic highs, and the pressing issues facing American society, such as corruption and public safety, as highlighted by the behavior of government officials. Criticism is directed towards the prioritization of financial metrics over serious national concerns, exemplifying a perceived collapse in media and governmental accountability during the Trump administration.

Key takeaways

  • The Dow hits 50,000, but is wealth really translating to well-being for all Americans?
  • Record stock highs overshadow pressing issues like corruption and justice reform. Are we missing the forest for the trees?
  • Tariffs may not spike inflation, but they silently drain wallets—hidden taxes aren't as invisible as politicians think.
  • A booming Dow doesn’t equal a booming life; the real measure of success is quality of living, not stock prices.
  • When key officials prioritize markets over justice, it's time to question who truly benefits from economic success.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi
  2. – 10:00: Donald Trump
  3. – 15:00: Mickey Huff, Project Censored, The State of the Free Press, 2026, Jeff Bezos
  4. – 20:00: Project Censored, The State of the Free Press, 2026, Jeff Bezos, Washington Post
  5. – 25:00: Project Censored
  6. – 30:00: Project Censored
  7. – 35:00: Washington Post, Project Censored, Jeff Bezos, Movement Media Alliance
  8. – 40:00: Project Censored, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Movement Media Alliance, Texas Tribune
  9. – 45:00: Washington Post, Project Censored, Attorney General Pam Bondi

Notable quotes from "LIVE: Watchdog BLOWS WHISTLE on Media COLLAPSE under Trump"

  • That's the lady who's in charge of the prosecutor the top prosecutor in America. And she tried to think and look at the disrespect too. I want to I want to highlight that because it's.
    about Attorney General Pam Bondi · at
  • The president instead the Congress handling trade, the president himself at his whim. This is the kind of leadership we're facing right now and the stability. And I'm going to show you how that plays out. But watch this video.
    about Donald Trump · at
  • Gets into pressure on media. Look, we already know, you just saw what happened to the Washington Post with Jeff Bezos's. Look, Jeff Bezos could probably skip a meal and pay for all the staff he just fired at the Washington Post.
    about Washington Post · at
  • Got a great guest today who runs something really cool. So my guest is Mickey Huff. He's the director of Project Censored as the president of the nonprofit Media Freedom…
    about Mickey Huff · at
  • Industry is being blackmailed and extorted by the current administration in various ways. We've seen the complete gutting of CBS once the seat of people like Edward Muro and…
    about CBS · at
  • Corruption on government including government collusion with media. And so the definition of censorship at Project Censored has always meant the sort of anything that…
    about Project Censored · at
  • Bezos saying, We're not endorsing a president. We're not going to do we want more neoliberal probillionaire stories. And then when they don't produce and their.
    about Jeff Bezos · at
  • He shifted some of the tagline and the focus to media democracy and action. And what that means is and you know Maya Shinar and Laura Wit from the movement media alliance truth…
    about Movement Media Alliance · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Donald Trump — Person · Primary political figure being criticized · 6 mentions · first at
    Central subject of critique regarding tariffs, economic claims, and governance style; used as an example of misinformation, instability, and pressure on institutions (including media).
  • Mickey Huff — Person · Main guest · 2 mentions · first at
    Interview guest explaining media censorship dynamics, corporate media consolidation, and 'media democracy' solutions; introduced as director of Project Censored and affiliated with Ithaca College.
  • Jeff Bezos — Person · Referenced media owner / billionaire case study · 3 mentions · first at
    Used as an example of billionaire influence over major media (Washington Post), newsroom cuts, and the episode’s broader argument about controlled information flows.
  • Attorney General Pam Bondi — Person · Referenced government official (example in opening clip) · 3 mentions · first at
    Cited as an example of perceived institutional dysfunction and misplaced priorities; described as the top U.S. prosecutor/Attorney General in the episode’s framing.

Books & papers

  • The State of the Free Press, 2026 — Book · Primary recommendation · 2 mentions · first at
    The 50th anniversary edition book edited by Mickey Huff, discussing the state of media censorship and democracy.
    Of journalism. And while you're here today, Mickey, it's great to have you, the editor of the new book, The State of the Free Press, 2026. Show us the book.

Companies & orgs

  • Project Censored — Company · Business focus · 13 mentions · first at
    A nonprofit organization focused on identifying and publicizing censorship in media, discussed as a key player in media democracy.
  • Washington Post — Company · Case study · 6 mentions · first at
    Discussed as an example of corporate media under pressure and control, highlighting issues of media freedom and censorship.
  • Ithaca College — Company · Affiliation · 2 mentions · first at
    Mickey Huff's current academic affiliation, where he serves as a professor and director of the Park Center for Independent Media.
    Spending I talk bring him on in he lived in Northern California for an awfully long time. now he serves as the distinguished director of the Park Center for Independent Media…
  • CBS — Company · Case study · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as an example of media consolidation and the decline of traditional journalism under corporate control.
  • Movement Media Alliance — Company · Recommendation · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a consortium of independent news organizations working together to support media democracy.
  • Gallup — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of media trust and the decision to stop conducting presidential approval polls, highlighting issues in media reliability.
    Hard to understand why we're not getting the truth from our government and people are going with it. Just today it was announced I think Gallup for the first time in their history is going to stop doing the presidential approval poll.
  • Freedom of the Press Foundation — Company · Recommendation · 1 mention · first at
    Highlighted as an organization protecting press freedom and advocating for media democracy.
    Reporting amazing information that you're not seeing in the corporate press. We've got Lauren Harper from Freedom of the Press Foundation, the first government secrecy, Dan…
  • Texas Tribune — Company · Recommendation · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as an example of nonprofit news organizations that are part of the solution to media democracy issues.
    I can tell you absolutely it does on a couple of different in a couple of main ways. is one. You just mentioned some great organizations and there are many more and I urge…
  • Andox — Company · Incidental · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in passing as part of the podcast's network, with no significant discussion or relevance to the main topics.
    We're just getting started. It's going to be a great night here on Andox at FP Wellman. I of course am Fred Wellman, your hostess with the mostas right here on the Midas Touch Network. I'm excited.

Full transcript with timestamps

Dow is over $50,000. I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stock trader as I hear Raskin. The Dow is over $50,000 right now. The S&P at almost 7,000 and the NASDAQ smashing records. Americans 401ks and retirement savings are booming. That's what we should be talking about. We should be talking about making Americans safe. We should be talking about what does a DAO have to do with anything? That's what they just asked. Are you kidding?

Mr. Jordan, am I Mr. Jordan? Committee will be in order. Mr. Jordan, am I going to get an extra 45 seconds added to my time?

The committee will be in order. The time belongs to the gentleman from Texas, Miss Bondi. The attorney general can respond.

Thank you. The DAO has shattered 50,000 for the first time. This is crazy. They said it couldn't be done in four years. Yet, President Trump has done it in one year.

So, that's Pam Bondi. You guys know that. You probably saw that clip. That's her talking about uh obviously the most important thing in front of the D Department of Justice. Uh as Epste victims sit in the room, as we talk about uh unleashed mass ages, the streets of the America, as we talk about massive corruption. No, but the Dow is up. The insanity you see is class. I wanted to show you that up front because it relates to the we're going to talk about the rest of this way. That's the person who's in charge of our justice system.

That's the lady who's in charge of uh the prosecutor the top prosecutor in America. And she tried to think and and look at the disrespect too. I want to I want to highlight that because it's something I talk about a lot in my other job. What you should be happy Rasin. If you could imagine if I if I couldn't imagine a time in our lives as Americans where that's the way an appointed official Senate confirmed official of the United States government treated the oversight of their job. That is where we're at with the insanity and the loss of power of the United States Congress seeding their authority. You see Jordan after all the screaming, what did Jordan do in his lack of a jacket? He handed it back to Pam Bonnie. They're not even pretending to be in charge of anything.

And that takes us to what I want to talk a bit a little bit about here at the beginning, too. And it's kind of weird, but it's tariffs. Let's talk about tariffs. Because as you guys woke up this morning, you probably saw the jobs numbers out. You probably saw Scott Patent on TV saying how everything is awesome and oh man, that the tariffs are working. Trump wants you to believe the tariffs are working. Uh, you know, look, this is this is Trump this week talking about his tariffs.

It's because of tariffs. So, we're we're doing numbers that nobody thought were possible. The economy is rich. Uh I told the story that in Saudi Arabia the king said you know sir a year and a half ago we were all saying you were a dead country and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Guys, good news. The king of Saudi Arabia thinks we're hot right now. You know Trump's boss, the guy who pays him and his family, right? So because tariffs have made us hot. And the truth about tariffs is far from that. And it's a very complex subject, but it's not doing well for us and it's hard to explain to people. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about it because you're being lied to. You saw the CPI came out today. Oh, everything is great. Inflation's flattening.

Everything's being better. Everything's great. But here here's actually what an expert said about this. And and it's a little complex, but listen carefully when they tell you how great inflation's going. this argument that inflation has not spiked as much as some economists had predicted because of the tariffs. There are places where prices have not gone up quite as badly as as many had thought. What do you make of that?

I think the inflation question is unfortunately a a really big distraction. Um because tariffs can go up and costs can go up without inflation going up. Um if you think of tariffs as a relative price increase, that's that's what happens. You might have to pay more for shoes if a tariff is applied to shoes and that means you have less money to pay elsewhere. So headline inflation may not change much but your burden went up because the costs that you personally face for goods that have tariffs imposed on them has risen. We've seen partial pass through to consumer prices in the data. But even if tariffs don't fully pass through to consumer prices, that doesn't mean the burden is gone. That means it becomes a hidden tax burden.

businesses have higher costs and they deal with that by reducing wage increases or slowing down on hiring. So at the end of the day, whether it's through consumer price increases or a hidden tax increase that hurts the labor market, it's really Americans who are paying this tax increase doesn't just have to show up in the price you pay at the store. It can also be in how much money you take home and your paycheck, what your cost of living.

See, that's the key. It may not show up in inflation. So, while the Trump administration, their lackey are telling us everything is awesome, that inflation is not going up, that manufactures get ready to boom, right around the corner, I got some charts to show you that's wrong. It the the economists, the experts understand that's not true. Okay? Yeah, sure. Maybe it's not all shoes going up, but your shoes you just accidentally bought from Italy or bought from China are going up. Your small businesses imports, I don't know, like my like my daughter's business, they import citric acid. Where's it come from? It comes from Canada. 25% here and there. And that's before we talk about the absolute madness of what Donald Trump is doing. Because since this whole thing is based on a national emergency using the economic emergencies act, by the way, completely not true. But hey, that's how you know that's how he's

doing this. He took the power of tariffs away from Congress by declaring a national emergency. So now instead of Congress being the overseers of tariffs, the president instead the Congress handling trade, the president himself at his whim. This is the kind of leadership we're facing right now and the stability. And I'm going to show you how that plays out. But watch this video. This is Trump this week. You may have seen this one. So I put on a 30% tariff, which is very low. Still, we were having a big deficit, but it was half the deficit. Then I got an emergency call from I believe the prime minister of Switzerland and she was very aggressive but nice but very aggressive. Sir, we are a small country. We can't do this.

We can't do this. We are I couldn't get off the thought. We are a small country. I said you may be a small country but we have a $ 42 billion deficit with you. No, no, we are a small country again and again and again. I couldn't get her off the phone. So it was a 30%. and I didn't really like the way she talked to us and so instead of giving her a reduction I raised it to 39%. And then they I got inundated by people from Switzerland and I figured you know what we'll do something that's a little bit more palatable at least now. But I realized that all these you know Switzerland you think of as you know ultra chic.

He didn't like the way they talked to him. Oh, by the way, fun fact. Switzerland doesn't have a prime minister. They have a president of a confederation. It's a confederation. Okay? It's a federated state. This dumbass who's supposed to be our president doesn't even know who he's talking to on the phone and he just jacked up their rates 39%. But you know who's paying that? Their study now show you noticed 94% like 84% or 90% of all tariff costs are being passed to US consumers. He's not punishing anyone but the US. You own a candy store in Pipsy.

Guess what? Your Swiss chocolate just went up because Trump didn't like the attitude of the person who called them, begging him not to screw their economy over. That's not leadership. And that's not how this country is supposed to freaking work. So, let's talk the truth about these lies. This is what tariffs are doing to us. Yeah, that is the actual manufacturing construction spending. That's how it's been torched in just one year. One year of Trump's Trump's tariffs, manufacturers plum in the United States. You know why? Because it costs a ton of money for all of those basic things. Steel, wood from Canada, all that's gone up. This is the real truth about the cost of commodities.

Yeah, they're going up. And just like that economist said, is because it's specific sectors. And by the way, if you trust Donald Trump's numbers after firing the statistitians of this government, have I got bad news for you. And I get very angry when I see media companies, and we're going to talk about that, act like it's a real list when they cut out major portions of what is measured typically in inflation just to make it look good. Yeah, gas prices went down because people can't afford to go out anymore. But this is what this is the chart that shocked me this week, you guys. Yeah, that's the jobs. And you say that goes right back to what Trump just did in that video. Well, I got mad, so I made it 39%. This what you're seeing what you're seeing right here, folks.

What you're seeing right there is instability. Okay? This is what happens. The chart should be steady up, steady down. But since Donald Trump took office and in instigated his liberation day tariffs, which got a lot of people rich, by the way, this is the job. It's all over the place. That reflects growth. It reflects reporting, firing statisticians. It's all if you believe these are true numbers, you should also be shocked because that shouldn't look like that. It doesn't take an economist or a rocket scientist of which I'm neither to look at that chart say, "Oh, that's messed up." And that's what we call leaders.

But here's the big thing. The selling point they're making is that they passed their big billionaire. You're going to see your member of Congress. I've got a member of Congress that I'm very uh uh intimate with, if you will, who likes to call it the middle class tax cut. That's it's not the big billionaire bill, the big one big beautiful bill. the the the middle class tax cut act. And how does tariffs play to that? Well, this lovely chart. Yeah, folks, that's the actual bite that these tariffs are doing to working Americans. Average Americans.

The red bar is the tariff burden. The average Americans paid $1,000 last year in tariffs. This year, if they hold, it'll be 1300. So their little billionaire bill that gave the middle class a tax cut is completely wiped out by the fact you're paying more for freaking everything. And where do we go from here? Where do we have this discussion of what we're dealing with? Well, we turn to the media, which is where we're going in this show. I know it's been a journey getting here. But it's such a complex story and everyone is failing to tell it and understand it in a way that average Americans could do it. I'm an average American. Okay. It's hard to understand why they're telling us everything is okay, but the real numbers at my store are much worse. It's hard to understand why we're not getting the truth from our government and people are going with it. Just today it was announced I think Gallup for the first

time in their history is going to stop doing the presidential approval poll. Why? And that gets into censorship. That gets into pressure on media. Look, we already know, you just saw what happened to the Washington Post with Jeff Bezos's. Look, Jeff Bezos could probably skip a meal and pay for all the staff he just fired at the Washington Post. He could skip a trip to He spent $56 million on his wedding in Venice. He could afford to pay for the reporters they just fired the Washington Post. But that's not the deal, is it? The deal is a controlled media, a controlled information flow is what keeps this democracy, keeps us guessing. And when the truth comes out like this, people are shocked because the truth isn't getting to them. And that's why I'm really excited about having our guest today because we're gonna talk about all of this. What what I love when I got pitched for from my friends here is junk

food news. I don't know, maybe a $56 million wedding in, you know, in Venice with the Kardashians waving at us as peeons is junk food news, not real news. Maybe the clash between uh rappers and you know the bad bunny story is really junk food and not the real news because the real news is that jobs report. The real news is a average American is not actually getting a break from this government but paying more. So that's where we're going today. I'm thrilled to have you. It's Friday night, Friday the 13th. I've had a great day already.

We're just getting started. It's going to be a great night here on Andox at FP Wellman. I of course am Fred Wellman, your hostess with the mostas right here on the Midas Touch Network. I'm excited to have you guys join us tonight live. Got a great guest as always. Great conversations. Let's get on with the show.

Yes. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I am still Fred Wellman. Uh 15 seconds ago, I was Fred Wellman. I'm still Fred Wellman. My dogs are barking cuz I drummed on my desk. welcome to the show. It's great to have you. Look, uh there are so much going on and and we rely on the media or the independent media now more than ever to tell us that story effectively and it's gotten harder harder, but I'm so excited because we got a great guest today who runs something really cool. So my guest is Mickey Huff. He's the director of Project Censored as the president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. Huff joined Ithaca College in 2024 after spending I talk bring him on in he lived in Northern California for an awfully long time. now he serves as the distinguished director of the Park Center for Independent Media, professor of journalism. And while you're here today, Mickey, it's great to have you,

the editor of the new book, The State of the Free Press, 2026. Show us the book. You know, it's so great to have you, Mickey. We've been trying to get you on for a while, but I couldn't think of a better timing. It just I couldn't I was looking at the news this week as you prepare for the show and I thought, "Oh my god, what a great time to talk about the media, you know? I mean, you saw that opening a bit." Does does that make sense to you? It's like trying to explain tariffs, you know, today, isn't it? It's hard, isn't it? Well, Fred, it's an honor to be here with you.

Thanks so much for the uh for the invitation. You know, it's always a good time to talk about the media because the corporate media never really want to talk about uh themselves in a way that is self-reflective and critical, a degree to which that they reassess their reporting and who their audiences happen to be. And because if the corporate media did regularly check their own reporting and the things they cover and don't cover, they would likely begin to realize uh really see patterns of how many things they leave out. And the things that they leave out we could we could chalk up to uh well there's not enough time uh or we're not sure if the audience is interested. But there are also, of course, far more insidious reasons that stories aren't covered or don't get the attention they deserve.

And that usually has to do with the political economy of mass media. Who, you know, who who are they offending, who are they li lifting up, those kinds of things. And so that's why we really need a vibrant independent media, an independent press that reports transparently and ethically in the public interest first and foremost, not on the behest of the advertisers, the owners, the boards of directorates, government uh agencies appointees uh, etc. And so this is a project censored. This is our 50th year. Actually, we were founded in 1976 because, you know, Fred, the problems with media aren't just recent. Uh, and they're not just in the last decade with the moral panics around so-called fake news that the Trump administration has weaponized expertly, uh, really uh, blowing up Nixon's attacks on the press, really making Nixon's attacks on the press look almost comical by comparison.

But here we are. And you know, I tie into that history in the beginning of the this year's book, State of the Free Press 2026. Again, our 50th anniversary edition edited with my colleagues Shaye Voyel and Andy Lee Roth. Um, and in it, I really talk about past and present, you know, past prologue. We live in a in a society where we have had um a belief that the media will eventually tell us the things we need to know to meaningfully be civically engaged. But that trust in media has been waning and flagging for quite some time. And in fact, in the last decade, we've seen record lows beyond, you know, record lows. Record. We keep getting record lows.

No, it keeps going down. It's just diving. It's kind of it's kind of radio again subterranean at this juncture,

you know, and and that's really not a good thing because when you see that the public trust in in the fourth estate is hovering down around the same trust they have in in things like Congress, which is also tragic. Um, we have to start asking important questions. Why is that? Is it because the public is simply fooled or uneducated? Is it because they don't understand the complicated issues that are going on like tariffs? like you said perhaps there is uh perhaps that's some of the reason but the other reason why people might not understand complicated issues is because the media don't tell people what's really going on to paraphrase George Selky's from you know the mid 20th century the media's job is to tell the public what's happening it's not to pretend to be objective it's not that both sides everything to death it's not to pretend that facts on one hand are equal to no facts on the other in in in uh you know

in nature of fairness or balance it's again to report the facts to show people, shine light in the dark places and allow the public to understand how the system that allegedly supports them really works and for whom. And that's what we've been doing at Project Censored for 50 years. That's of course what I'm doing at the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College with the annual Izzy Award aimed after muckaker is Stone. This year coming up in April is our 18th annual award already. So, while the corporate media is bleak and you know the billionaire press is tanking, they're allowing it to tank. If they can't buy it and own it and control the message, they'll just let it wither on the vine and die. And that's what we're seeing. Jeff Bezos is the one that's turning off the lights uh over at the Washington Post to have democracy die in darkness. The entire industry is being uh blackmailed and

extorted by the current administration in various ways. We've seen the complete gutting of CBS once once the seat of people like Edward Muro and Walter Konhite who was friends with Carl Jensen, the founder of Project Censored by the way. Um, we now see the ideological commentator and hack Barry Weiss uh at the head of CBS. Their ratings have of course tanked. They already weren't great. But that's again part of the trend is to destroy the fourth estate to continue to degrade public trust so that people then sort of flounder around and look for information. And half of Americans already, Fred, get information from social media platforms and they engage in what's called news snacking where oh the news will eventually find me because my feed is just constantly telling me things. But what people don't see is the the the blackbox, the algorithms, the shadow banning, the way in which big tech, you know, winnows, sensors,

controls, and pushes various forms of information uh to promote certain narratives and uh suppress others. And so that's what we've been talking about at the project for a really long time. And in the last 5 years or so, we've certainly spent a lot of time looking at big tech and the control, the big tech, five companies basically that control much of the big tech sector. Of course, now with AI and Nvidia and Palunteer, we're into, you know, P or we need a new term. Orwellian doesn't cut it anymore.

Yeah. And let me let me cut, you know, that's exactly I mean, we've seen dramatic changes in the media, right? And I'm sit you're sitting on the Midas touch network. We have 5.8 million subscribers on YouTube. Some ridiculous number. I mean, I I think when I started on Midas Touch, it was 1.6 mill. We all thought that's crazy. And now we're here at 5.8, you know, and which, by the way, good lord, I can't believe I'm sitting here. And having said that, um, they let anyone's network clearly. Uh, having said that, um, you know, so you're seeing a rise of of truly an independent media of a sorts. Obviously, I'm an opinion guy. I'm I have strong opinions.

I don't hide those opinions. Um, I mean, it it we're I think you're sitting in a time as you wrote this book, the 50th anniversary of the center. Um, that we are in a very very serious time of change in the industry, right? Is there a comparison in history, you think, Mickey, where you've seen such of the rise of people like me of all people, some some some dude from Missouri, you know, but has a voice? I mean, hey, look, a 100,000 people a week or 200,000 a week seeing me jibber jabber, that's some serious numbers for even a a regular media outlet, right? It's incredible, Fred, that what those technologies have allowed us to do is that they have allowed us to hear different voices, more voices. And in theory, it has certainly allowed people the opportunity not only to speak, but be heard and to say things and to have narratives get through and cut through the noise that we don't hear in the

so-called mainstream or establishment press. However, it's also completely increased the noise. And so it's harder and harder to find those voices and then establish the trust that the fourth estate assumed uh until it began to really lose that public trust and begin to even contribute to its own demise by failing to report accurately in the public interest and hold those in power to account. You mentioned were there previous eras and I'm not going to go through the golden era of fallacies or put on the rosecolored glasses and have an appeal to antiquity. I appreciate them

because I'm bald as hell and I know better. Yeah, exactly. It's never been perfect, man. It's never been perfect. But if we go back a hundred years, you know, people like Upton Sinclair really were making a difference, right? People like Lincoln Stefins who were really making a difference in the Shame of the City series. And what happened is if you took the writing of people like Ida Tarbell taking down Standard Oil Up in Sinclair leading Teddy Roosevelt to pass the first regulatory measures to oversee food safety. I mean, that's really incredible. It was actually Roosevelt's doctor that was privy to Sinclair's work that told Roosevelt, "Hey, this is a serious issue and we should be looking at this." And it's it's muckreking journalists like Sinclair that were telling the story. And a lot of the bigger papers at the time weren't really interested in that until they started to realize that the public had an appetite

for these kind of stories. And that's when you started to see Stefins and many others and that slogan. It's a so-called golden era of muckreaking journalism. However, the way that the corporate media at the time responded to it was through yellow journalism by throwing anybody who wanted to write salacious stories and try to take each other down. It was like a hip style, right? It was like gotcha journalism on steroids. The problem was is that the work that these reporters were doing often took months or years and they had to produce receipts and that's how they gained public trust and cause change. These other ephemeral, you know, coattailing people writing in the yellow press, the cheap media, they were making things up or they were writing salacious tales of gossip and so on, forrunners of what we now call, Carl Jensen coined the term, the founder of Project Censor coined the term junk food news in 1983 to talk

about the problems of what he referred to as news inflation. There's more and more of it. To your point earlier, 5.8 8 million viewers on the Min. There's more and more of it news everywhere. But because there's more and more of it, it seems to be less. It seems to be worth less, right? More and more, it's worth less and less. And it's harder to find the quality journalism because here's the punch line. We live in a society that doesn't teach critical media literacy. We do not teach the public how to critically engage with the fourth estate. We do not teach the society how to critically reason, how to form logical arguments, or how to respectfully and civily disagree with one another and rely on facts and evidence rather than appeals to emotion, fear-mongering, and reliance on confirmation bias. And so it you won't be surprised that uh you know, I'm I'm an historian by trade and I teach

critical thinking. I teach historioggraphy. When it comes to journalism, I'm interested in the society professional journalist code of ethics. I'm interested how that applies to storytelling. I'm interested in how that how that relates to who gets to tell the stories and who doesn't. In addition to like just basic things like factchecking, Andy Lee Roth and Shaye Boil Project Censored have also reminded us of frameing. The media and their Overton window, they frame the things that they want us to hear and see and how we're supposed to talk about it. And if you happen to have a viewpoint or facts that go outside of that window, they simply don't get a fair hearing.

And that's not a new phenomenon either. It's just nowadays in an era where we have such such consolidation of the of the media whether it's corporate media or big tech in Silicon Valley it's harder and harder to get through. You might be sitting into the microphone. It might look like you have 5 million listeners but you may or may not you know half the traffic on the internet is bot driven. Right? These are the kind of things when we talk about critical media literacy. These are the kind of things about the media landscape that we're talking about that most of the public is wholly unaware. Not because they're stupid but because they're not given the opportunity to learn about it. Media literacy, for example, is only a mandated topic of education in six states Fred.

Right. This should be mandatory K12, which is why we wrote the book, The Media and Me, a critical media literacy guide for young people. That's actually been adopted by one of the largest school districts in the country in one of those states. But this is a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed. In order for the public to understand that tariff graph that you showed them, they need to understand a history of where tariffs came from. They need to understand a history of things like protectionism. They need to understand the ramifications and the outcomes of things like the Cold War. Those things aren't yesterday's news. They shape the world we live in today. And since people have also civic and historical illiteracy, h you know, we're really kind of like just putting things on top of nothing. like the foundation is very shallow and it's it's very um well it crumbles very easily because people don't have the

fundamental backgrounds and basic skills of critical thought, critical analysis, historical background and of course the art of conversation, constructive dialogue, how to speak with people not over people, and how to build bridges, not walls. Fred and

All right, let's stop you. Let's I that's a great place to transition because I do want to talk about the next piece of that which is the walls that are going up around us that are hard to break through too. So, first let's get our we take a sponsor break real quick. Got a great sponsor with Shopify always takes care of us and then we'll be right back. You know, I started this podcast and my former small businesses. It seemed like I had to figure it out all on my own. I mean everything from scripts, setup, lo locations. It was super overwhelming and every day seem to introduce a new decision that I needed an answer. When you're starting off with something new, it always seems like your to-do list keeps growing and every day it's new tasks, new things you got to get done and it overwhelms your life.

And then find that right tool that not only helps you out but simplifies everything can be such a gamecher. And for millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the US. from household names you know to ones you should like Sugar and Spruce to brands that are just getting started. So accelerate your efficiency. Whether you're uploading new products or you're trying to improve existing ones, Shopify is full of helpful AI tools that help you from product descriptions, headlines, even your photography. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and all of it. And the best part, if you get stuck, because let's face it, I'm kind of old, Shopify guy is always around with 247 customer support that you can

call when you're in a crunch. So start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start here and sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.comfred. Okay, that's go to shopify.comfred. one more time at shopify.com/fred. Hit him today. Thanks. And we're back. So that I was kind of looking to to transition because it's about project censored, right? It's project censor. And I think when it started 50 years ago, censorship looked a certain way, right? And I think here in 2026, sensor, you talked about walls before we took our break. You know that the censorship looks different, doesn't it?

Look, it looks like Barry Weiss being in charge. It looks like pressure from the white. You know what I'm saying? So c can you take me through a little bit that that that art that you know I people don't realize they're being censored today, right? So talk to me like what does censorship at at Project Censored look like in 2026?

So that's a fantastic question, Fred, and I appreciate the opportunity. We our definition of censorship hasn't actually changed that much since Carl Jensen founded the project. Uh and Peter Phillips took over 20 years later and then I became associate director in '08, director in 2010. Andy Lee Roth came back as associate director right after that. So

pretty big names, man. And you got well we we had a you know we've had a string of consistent coverage about what we talk about censorship. And when we talk about censorship we don't just mean that the government comes in and blacks out the story. We know that happens because of whistleblowers. We know that happens because of historical council. We of course know that happens because of things like Wikileaks and Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Guryakau. We can go down the list of whistleblowers, right?

Daniel Ellsberg historically, right? And you know the project said the project center was founded in the wake of things like the Pentagon papers, Watergate and the Church Committee hearings unveiling sort of pulling back the curtain of corruption on government including government collusion with media. And so the definition of censorship at Project Censored has always meant the um the sort of um anything that interferes with the free flow of information in a society that purports to have free press principles is a form of censorship.

People need to understand that censorship is a nuanced thing, which is why we also talk about a concept we have called censorship by proxy, which is where major corporations that control the media assets operate in ways where their interests and the interests of government actually align. There doesn't need to be a formal meeting at, you know, the end of an abandoned pier in an empty warehouse with people murmuring in code and trench coats under a light bulb with no

envelopes of cash. Yeah. No, it's much more. Speaking of envelopes of cash, maybe Tom Hullman knows a little bit about that. But

Oh, yes, he does. Moving along from the bags of cash. There's plenty of bags of cash.

I go to Caba. I don't go to Cabo enough. Clearly there we digress. Yeah. No, no, no. Maybe we'll meet one day there.

Yeah. Nevertheless, censorship is at at let's go back and just look at this for example. At the time, Walter Kronite was one of the biggest names in news in the country. Um, and he was trying to report on Watergate around the 72 election. And there were independent media people that were reporting about Watergate in the 72 election. This is before the Washington Post, before Bernstein and Woodward, before it all of it broke and led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. And the independent media actually had a role in that. And that's actually what ended up helping start Project Censored is Carl Jensen was wondering why it took the media so long to see one of the biggest scandals of the century. Right? And so that started him thinking about ways in which news media is suppressed or censored. And guess what? There was an actual government interference between the Nixon White House and the president

of CBS that actually spiked a significant report that Kronhite wanted to do and that came out later. But the more important thing from that story is that there were independent people writing about it that didn't have the reach. And it wasn't until the Washington Post really blew up the story. You know, there were only a handful of reporters in Washington DC on that story for the years that it was developing because the owners of the press were like, "Oh, well, what is this garden variety corruption?" uh or what what exactly is there to see here? And again, it was like the tip of the iceberg. And and by the iceberg, I don't just mean Nixon and some of the petty crimes he had a foot. I'm talking about the major crimes against humanity, 3 million dead in Vietnam. Both presidents, both administrations lying through their teeth, as we learned about in the Pentagon Papers where Nixon tried to stop the Times, the New York Times,

and the Supreme Court at that time ruled in favor of the free press and whistleblowers and Daniel Ellburg. I'm afraid, Fred, that the the Supreme Court today likely would not uphold that kind of right of the press. Number one, but number two, we seem to lack civil courage in our news media today where those outlets do not want to report on those kind of specific stories that bring down major people in power because they are too deeply entrenched with them. Right? And that's where I get back to the censorship by proxy. That's where we get back to looking at ownership, all of them. And they've they the one thing that's changed a bit, Fred, I would suggest is that the absolute brazeness that these people now exhibit millionaires row with the inauguration.

You know, Bezos saying, "We're not endorsing a president. We're not going to do we want more neoliberal probillionaire stories." And then when they don't produce and their subscriptions tank, he cuts 30% of the workforce. Right?

This is by design, right? It also creates a chilling effect. And censorship is not just again the thing that comes from on high. It doesn't just come laterally from the editorial rooms. It also comes from reporters themselves who fear for their jobs, right?

They see a reporter reporting about something serious that they then get attacked or lose their job. And that's happening in droves now. And just in the last year, we've seen all kinds of episodes of professors being fired, journalists losing their jobs, all for asking questions, all for daring to try to show the facts and speak the truth to power in ways that might embarrass people in powerful positions. And we can't forget that. And this is why we need to support a truly vibrant free press. Not again. AJ Leeing in 1960, a media critic once wrote, "The best way to ensure freedom of the press is to own one." Well, yeah. He was criticizing that, not encouraging people to do it.

Yeah. But this is where we are now specifically is that we're down to a half a dozen companies, whether it's big tech or in the media, that control damn near everything that's going on. People think they have a variety because they have 500 channels, but it's owned by the same five or six companies that then have subsidiaries and their parent companies and all the other uh companies that they didn't advertise for and pretend they have. I mean, it's a large incestuous game and an origy of capital. And as George Carlin one quit once quipped, it's a big club and Fred, we ain't in it.

No, we a and that talks me. So, we talk about, you know, media democracy is a solution, right? And and and and what media democracy. So talk to me about that what what when you talk when you use the term media democracy solution and what does media democracy and action look like to you today Mickey with I mean what you what you've described and I hopefully our people aren't just like depressed as hell now

sorry gang here we are you know welcome to my world there's more wait there's more uh yeah you think that's shitty wait till you're the next beat um but seriously I mean what does the media democracy as a solution look like and tell tell me what when you talk about media democracy walk me through So thanks for the opportunity Fred. I appreciate that. Um you know one of our taglines at the project for years has been the news that doesn't make the news and why but for a period of time in the 2000s when Peter Phillips was director he shifted some of the tagline and the focus to media democracy and action. And what that means is and you know Maya Shinar and Laura Wit from the movement media alliance truth out and prison reports contributed to the chapter in the book. We have a chapter every year called um media democracy in action and Misha has been editing that chapter for several years for us now. uh a great

media scholar and she works with lots of project censored. Um Laura Maya and Laura wrote, "There's no power for the people without journalism by and for the people." Not the billionaires, right? Um not the military-industrial complex, uh but by and for the people. And the media democracy and action chapter does something that we do at Project Censor that enshes the important principles of the society professional journalist code of ethics. Um also the importance of understanding the role of the free press in society to accurately inform the public so they be meaningfully civically engaged. But it also focuses on solutions journalism. And so that's the thing that we wanted to get to is that we don't just call out the problems. It gets mired in the negative news cycle of Project Censored. Yes, we point out the problems. Yes, we point out what corporate media don't cover. We also applaud the media, corporate media when

they do cover important stories because it's not all bad. It's not all corrupt and garbage. It's nuanced. But the independent media help us see where those things are and they help us understand where there are important stories that the corporate media might be missing. And media democracy in action focuses on exactly these independent journalists, their outlets, these nonprofits, the people that we think year after year are doing the kind of work that's necessary for the maintenance of a democratic republic. And for example, the Movement Media Alliance is just one example, a consortium of basically two dozen independent news organizations that's banding together, helping pull their resources to make sure that independent media doesn't just exist, but that it grows and it thrives and that the people that care about citizen journalism and advocacy journalism not only have a place, but can make a living trying to

make a world a better place. And we think that that is among the most laudable things that can be said about the fourth estate and about journalism. And quite frankly, if you go back and look through, you know, some of the towering figures of the 20th century, whether it's, you know, from from Litman to Seldis or if Stone, um, the main the main job was to tell the public what is happening, what do they need to know, connect the dots, help people figure things out. And so this year we include several people in the book. And by the way, your uh your viewers, you can go to projectcensored.org and you can see all of our top censored stories going back to 1976 for free. You can see excerpts of all the book chapters going back to 93. Um, including junk food news, news abuse, propaganda, deconstruction. We do a whole deja vu section that historically looks at previously censored stories to see where are they?

Did the corporate media finally picked them up or do they continue to languish in obscurity. So, we show patterns, right? One of the things that makes Project Censor different is that we're an educational organization, right? We're not pundits. We're not 247 hottakers. We're 5212. We're in it for the long haul so people understand these things in the big picture. And one of the parts about solutions that's important again is in the media democracy for action chapter this year. We've got Ryan Grim from Drop Site News with Jeremy Seahill consistently reporting amazing information that you're not seeing in the corporate press. We've got Lauren Harper from Freedom of the Press Foundation, the first government secrecy, Dan Ellsburg secrecy chair over at the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Seth Stern doing absolutely amazing work around press freedom protecting press freedom. Jod raves spotted bear from Indigenous Media

Freedom Alliance talking about things in the media that you'll never see, you know, on television about indigenous peoples, on a history of settler colonialism, on how that relates to what's happening in the world today and why history matters for everyone, not just the dominant class. So I mean I again I could go on and on here Brian with examples of these groups but

does it look like too I mean on the larger areas like like ProPublica and like there is there is a there is a growth of nonprofit news like Texas Tribune and others uh here in Missouri we got the Missouri Independent that would I very much love you know there do you think that's a does that is that nonprofit news a direction that kind of addresses a lot of this you think because it it separates them from that right

I can tell you absolutely it does on a couple of different in a couple of main ways. is one. You just mentioned some great organizations uh and there are many many more and I urge people to go to our website projectcensor.org or parkindia.org. We have a whole section of independent media outlets and independent media organizations broken down by subject, topic, specificity, area of expertise and that's just the starting point because sometimes people say like what what makes media independent right versus corporate or for a profit and you know the nonprofit sector is uh and of course media freedom foundation we are a nonprofit that oversees projects censored and let me tell you Fred one of the ways we know that independent media and the nonprofit sector is doing so well is nonprofits have been the direct target of the current administration including in Congress on HR9495 where they are literally naming names

and giving reasons as to why 501c3s should be stripped of their tax exempt status by decree from the secretary of the Treasury with no oversight or no appeal. And of course they were targeting nonprofit groups specifically that were pointing out things that were happening in Gaza. They were, you know, pointing out inconvenient truths. Of course, the entire campaign to rest control of Tik Tok from China was coverage of Gaza. That was a direct reason said out loud by members of Congress, former senators. I mean, in for two years, they said the quiet part out loud. Young people are being radicalized by reporting in Gaza. So, instead of addressing why that is a problem, they went and shot the messengers. That's why we've seen record numbers of journalists being killed in places like Gaza. That's why the Israeli government won't let reporters into Gaza, where the Israeli government recently finally admitted, the IDF

admitted that the low conservative estimates of dead people in Gaza from the Gaza Health Ministry of 71,000 is quote accurate. I mean, that's more Americans than died in Vietnam, Fred. I mean, and yet, if you mention it, you're anti-Semitic. That's another trope and attack. And again, this is how we know that when those attacks get ramped up to fever pitch, Pam Bondi's right, tantrums, those attacks, fever, we know that there's a core truth that they are trying to attack and silence and they will silence anyone or anything that gets in the way of their authoritarian agenda. And I and again, as Sinclair Lewis said, when fascism comes to America, it'll be wrapped in the flag and carrying across. And here we are.

Yep. Yep. That's it right there. Well, I think that's a great place to go. So, uh, you we talked a little bit about it. Where can people find more information about what you guys are doing? And it sounds like you hit it a little bit, but I want to remind everybody that this is so important and grab the book and everything else.

Fred, you can go to projectcensored.org. You can get all of our information there. You can tune in to the weekly project sensor show syndicated on 50 60 stations around the country last years. Yeah, we've been

ask your bosses, Fred. Elellanar and I would love to join your network. And he could also you can also go to parkindydia.org to learn about the park center for independent media at the college and what I do there with students. Again students are really a central part of the work that we do both at project censored and the park center to train the next generation of citizen journalists and we want journalism schools and these kind of programs to quote Carl Jensen to churn out more muck raers and fewer buckers.

I love it. I guess that's where I fall. Well man Mickey man what a blast. Thanks for have thanks for coming on. This is such and for those who know the show and and you know the show it's it this is such a key key part of the democracy. It's not just the the the the the branches of government and Trump. It is how we are getting the information about what they're doing and that's the key. So I really appreciate the information. I know my audience going to love love hearing from you. The money loves this kind of stuff. All right. So good luck.

Stay safe out there you know right because crazy right now. I look forward to talking to you again soon sir.

Thanks Fred. Pleasure was my what a great conversation. I this is this is you guys I don't I return them to media about every three or four months right because that is such a key part of this conversation the show is called on democracy for reason and and you can hear these conversations we're having and if you don't see it you know obviously it's become so much more obvious this last it was perfect timing to get Mickey on because we are watching the Washington Post be stripped the bones we're watching uh what was the the icons of our media CBS New York Times Washington Post I mean I grew up on these myself you know it's funny I'm a I'm a West Point cadet I got the ring and thing and you know we had to memorize New York Times top stories every day and and and and recite them back to our leaders. Now I know now I know why as a six-year-old why that was so important. You know to create a media

knowledge and understanding within our future army officers was so important. Now who knows you're going to get when you read those stories. Who knows you're going to get when the Washington Post they're memorizing stories that make it sound okay that Pete Haggsath is doing the insane things he is to DoD. That Doug Collins is stripping VA and dismantling it to privatize it. They think that's okay. So, we've got a real fight. So, what Mickey's doing with understanding, you know, media, understanding what we're reading and how to cut our way through it. And by the way, what outlets to use and I can't recommend enough the organization we mentioned. So many great independent media, nonprofit media. So, check that all out. In the meantime, here we are.

Our independent media is right here on Democracy. My my voice is being put out on fpwman.substack.com. I'd love you to follow us there. Just as you're sitting here right now, just click on over to fpwman.substack.com. substack.com. Subscribe for free. You can't beat the price. We reach which put on a lot of information about that other project I'm working right on right now. A lot of information about that project because that also is important. Uh we're facing a very critical moment in the United States coming up this year. This is the year. This is the election year.

So, we can't not be involved. There is no choice anymore. We got here because too many people decided it was too hard to understand. Too many people decide to sit it out. So, don't you become one of them. Don't you sit out our democracy. Don't let your kids, your mom, your dad, anybody sit out our democracy in this moment in America because if you do, God knows what comes next because we're not done yet. We got a lot of fights still in us. I'm gonna keep on fighting. You know that if you've been following me for a while. So with that, this is the Mestouch Network. I am Fred Well and join us here, of course, live every Saturday or Friday night at 700 p.m.

Eastern. Keep up the fight, folks, because as I said, we're not done yet. Thanks.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: Watchdog BLOWS WHISTLE on Media COLLAPSE under Trump"?

Fred Wellman (Host), Mickey Huff (Guest).

What is "LIVE: Watchdog BLOWS WHISTLE on Media COLLAPSE under Trump" about?

The discussion centers on the striking contrast between soaring stock market indices like the Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ, which are at historic highs, and the pressing issues facing American society, such as corruption and public safety, as highlighted by the behavior of government officials. Criticism is directed towards the prioritization of financial metrics over serious national concerns,…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Project Censored, Mickey Huff, The State of the Free Press, 2026, Washington Post, Jeff Bezos. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: Watchdog BLOWS WHISTLE on Media COLLAPSE under Trump"?

The episode runs 45 min; the transcript is about 9,148 words in 82 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 15, 2026.