* CBS Self-Censors &
Trump Manipulations of Biblical Proportions
Is CBS Compromising the Public Debate for Profit Again?
February 17, 2026 / Government Media & Politics NYC / Billionaire Press & TV News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz.
At CBS Profit Trumps Free Speech?
The new ownership at CBS appears to be trading in free speech on our public airwaves, for their own selfish corporate interests. Unfortunately, this is not the first time CBS has made such a trade off. Ten years ago in February 2016, CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said, "... [Donald Trump's candidacy] may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS ...".
Last night Stephen Colbert was not allowed by CBS to air an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Talarico opined that he thought that CBS's self censorship was because Donald J. Trump is afraid that the Democrats are on the verge of flipping Texas to blue this year.
Colbert Posts the Interview to YouTube [Link Near End of Report]
So Colbert, in an act of integrity, made the Talarico interview public via Youtube [see graphic at right and link below]. In less than 24 hours, nearly 2 million people had viewed the interview [and a total of 3.5 million about 24 hours later]. Generally Colbert is watched by between 2.3 - 2.7 million viewers, so the CBS / Trump censorship effort doesn't appear to be working. And by the time all is said and done, their self censorship may in fact have the opposite effect. Link to Colbert / Talarico interview is included near the end of this report.
CBS Claims it's Following FCC Rules, but an FCC Commissioner Thinks Otherwise
CBS corporate ownership claims they pulled the interview because of the equal time rule. But if the FCC had enforced the equal time rule since Fox News started up in the 1990's, Fox News would be but a shadow of its current self. And CBS appears to have ignored the rule in the past, as have all the national corporate TV networks.
One of the five FCC Commissioners, who Trump cannot fire without just cause, said that the CBS decision was another example of corporate capitulation to the Trump Administration.
The graphic above or at right, shows Anna Gomez who opined - essentially - that CBS failed in its duty to protect the First Amendment. Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the FCC, appears to have been using his position to promulgate the very same cancel culture that Murdoch's Fox News has been railing against for years. True to Murdoch's self serving nature, Fox News seemed to cheer CBS's cancel culture move, because it favored the billionaire class's control of American airwaves [to get their candidates eleced], which is now complete.
- CLICK here to read the rest of our report about how billionaire controlled CBS News self censored in deference to Trump and Trump's manipulations using religion and the bible and patriotism and the flag.
CBS Self-Censors &
Trump Manipulations of Biblical Proportions
Is CBS Compromising the Public Debate for Profit Again?
February 17, 2026 / Government Media & Politics NYC / Billionaire Press & TV News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz. Continued.
Trump 2026 - Starts the Steal ?
Media Intimidation, Protester Beatings and Murders & Voter Suppression
Like Fox News, the Donald J. Trump Administration is no stranger to NOT playing fairly - and to exploiting the rules - rather than playing by them. We saw both Fox News and Trump's respect for the rules / law in real time during the January 6th, 2020 insurrection, following Trump's 'Stop the Steal' campaign.
Fox News paid $787 million so far, for its role in knowingly deceiving the American public, by knowingly broadcasting propaganda falsehoods to the American public regarding the 2020 election [paid to Dominion Voting Systems]. Murdoch news outlets [Fox News, WSJ & NY Post et al] have broadcast so many false and misleading stories that I can't keep track of all of them, try as I might. Copy & paste this link to an Associated Press report about the settlement - https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe
As part of the 'Stop the Steal' campaign, Donald J. Trump called Brad Raffensperger, then Secretary of State of Georgia, who was responsible for the administration of Georgia elections, asking him to produce 11,780 votes for Trump. Instead of stopping the steal, this appeared to be an effort by Trump to steal the election in the state of Georgia. The Trump / Raffensperger conversation was recorded and broadcast during the January 6th Insurrection hearings in the Capitol. Copy and paste this url to take a listen to it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbFc9T7KXA0
The photo above or at right shows Tulsi Gabbard, NSA Director, appearing to sneak about during the Fulton County Georgia ballot box raid in January 28, 2026.
Is Donald J. Trump the Corrupt Enemy Within?
Broken Billionaire TV News & Broken Leadership in Senate & House
Gabbard was described as a Russian sympathizer, susceptible to manipulation by Russian propaganda, during the Senate confirmation hearings. In May of 2025, Gabbard as NSA Director, was accused of holding onto a whistleblower report involving Jared Kusher, Trump's son-in-law.
It has been hypothesized, that Kushner is involved in multiple Trump family foreign deals, that are in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In May Kushner was involved in advising Trump Administration officials in advance of Trump's trip to the Middle East. Since May 2025, numerous exchanges of secret and advanced military technology and equipment has been transferred to three Middle Eastern nations [Saudi Arabia, Qatar & the United Arab Emirates], while at the same time, numerous real estate deals have been transacted by the Trump Organization with those same three Middle Eastern nations.
How much time did TV News allocate to these stories versus to the P. Diddy Combs trial?
Trump Values vs Republican Family Values
Is Trump Extortion, Intimidation, Violence & Corruption Enabled by
Billionaire TV News & Weakest Legislative Leadership Team in U.S. History?
Since coming to office just over a year ago, Trump has used federal funding to essentially extort mass media outlets, colleges and universities, large law firms and companies controlled by billionaires doing business with the federal government. Donald J. Trump has also used the power vested in him by the American people to intimidate them - as we've seen in ICE operations all around the nation. Many, many times ICE agents have beaten or sprayed toxic substances on American citizen protesters - and in too many incidents - have even killed them.
And then there's the under reported 'coincidences' of the Trump family business deals, being done simultaneously with U.S. military technology transfers [aka maga corruption], only a small bit of which is noted above, and which the graphic above or at right should help wake up those who are still sleeping or slow to recognize a con man when they're looking at him.
The so totally uninformative, broken billionaire TV News, isn't the only problem, but it's the biggest. If Americans received accurate and contextual reports about what's going on on this country, it's unlikely they would have elected what is quite possibly the weakest legislative leadership team in American history: Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
TV News and the Republican leadership teams all sit idly by, while America's advantages appear to be traded away, for what appears to be trinkets for the private profiteering of Donald J. Trump, family and associates. And TV News doesn't report much of it, doesn't stay focused on it, doesn't dig into it. They just bury their ostrich heads in their TV News screens, and amuse their audiences and themselves with celebrity court cases like P.Diddy Combs and crime scenes like the abduction of Savannah Guthrie's mom.
In the graphic above or at right is Jesse Watters making light of the Epstein Files on a Fox News show. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has long been known for using its empathetic sexism and racism as a manipulative tool to attract viewers. Fox News pundits been the toastmasters of disrespectful, bad taste since October 7, 1996. They call their behavior a war on political correctness, to disguise what it really is, which is a war on decency. Sadly, after 30 years, they appear to be winning.
About the only good thing I can say about the Republican led federal legislative leadership team, is that at least John Thune has generally held the line in protecting key Senate operating traditions.
Did Trump - Start the Steal - by Confiscating Georgia 2020 Ballots?
Here we are over five years later, and we're now seeing with Trump's DOJ and NSA ramping up efforts on 'election integrity' in Georgia, which appears to be part of the nascent Trump 'Start the Steal' campaign for 2026. Trump ordered his unprofessional FBI and NSA staff to raid the Fulton County Georgia office and confiscate the ballots from the 2020 election, which they did on January 28, 2026.
Wikipedia reports that, "... Robb Pitts, the chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, stated that the 2020 election ballots had been secure in the facility and said "... I can no longer, as chair of this board, satisfy not only the citizens of Atlanta but the citizens of the world that those ballots are still secure ..." Here's the Wikipedia account of what happened in that raid, which Billionaire TV News, as seems usual these days, miserably ignored or under reported - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_raid_of_Fulton_County,_Georgia_election_office
The photo above or at right is of the January 6th Insurrectionist Q'Anon Shaman, Jacob Chansley. Upon release from jail, he remained supportive of Trump. But about six months later, in July 2025 Chansley had changed his mind, calling Trump a "fraud", accusing Trump of telling "bold faced lies to everybody" and criticizing Trump for his ties to Epstein, Israel and failure to help working class Americans.
The New Normal. Abysmal TV News Reporting ...
... on the Epstein Files & Far too Much of Everything Else
The Trump-Bondi Epstein coverup began after Trump became president. Donald J. Trump had used Epstein's death to propagate conspiracy theories to the Trump faithful - beginning after Epstein's death in 2019.
It's worth mentioning that Epstein's death or murder took place in a federally run prison in NYC during Trump's first presidency [August 10, 2019]. For conpiracy theorists, Epstein died while in the Trump Administration care, during which time the security video was briefly cut at the time of Epstein's death. Epstein's brother, Mark, believes that his brother was murdered and that his brother's murder was authorized by Donald J. Trump.
Were these factoids reported by TV News?
Billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Fox News propagandists took their cues from Trump, and spread the disinformation about Epstein's death, the leftist 'deep state' and progressive 'political elites' starting in 2019 and continuing up to 2025 - if not beyond.
Some of the misinformation they spread was used to target former president Bill Clinton. Many of the lies and misinformation about Epstein's death that Trump and Fox News spread over the years, now appears to be pretty much the opposite of what truths the Epstein files suggest.
Charlie Kirk. It's worth noting that Charlie Kirk had second thoughts on Trump when the Trump Administration pivoted from propagating conspiracy theories about the Epstein files, to covering them up. This became abundantly clear last summer in the June / July 2025 time frame when Bondi's DOJ [including Kash Patel and Dan Bongino] tried to pass off old Epstein hash as the final word. All three of them had previously suggested Epstein conspiracies prior to their cover up of them. As you can see in the graphic headline, Trump bullied Kirk to back down.
UnderReported.
Trump's Deviant Character & Psychological Pathologies
A Subject Billionaire TV News Ignores Almost Completely
Editor's Note. Please pay attention here, because the mass media misses the boat in understanding Donald Trump. Trump's psychological projection is a huge Trump behavior trait and pattern, as he invariably projects his negative traits and the bad things he does, onto others. It's a defense mechanism where Trump plays innocent, when too often he is guilty. As for Murdoch's Fox News, if you want to live in Murdoch's world, keep watching. But if you want to return to the real world, change channels, or better yet - turn off the TV and hop onto the web.
Of late, a number of staunch Trump supporters have shown some measure of reconsideration such as Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Laura Loomer and Marjorie Taylor Greene. But because they have propagated nonsense in the past, they're likely to do it in the future, so they may just be contemplating the post-Trump future.
James Talarico on Flipping Texas Blue
Texas Senate Candidate v. Republican Charlatan Shamans
I've been watching a candidate for the Texas Senate, James Talarico, for several months now. I agree with him, that Donald J. Trump is afraid of Texas flipping. The Democrats are floating viable candidates like him [and his opponent Jasmine Crockett], who not only make sense, but do so, while talking about religion and Christianity in a real and meaningful - not manipulative - way.
Talarico is the grandson of a preacher from Laredo, a former seminarian, and a current Texas state legislator who talks about his religion personally, while also supporting the ideals embedded in the U.S. Constitution.
Talarico doesn't talk about Christianity and religion in the same exploitative and manipulative manner as so many of the politicians in the Republican Party do. Trump and Johnson, both famously and manipulatively brandish the Bible in front of the American conservative electorate, as if the conservative electorate is comprised of ignorant natives, like those depicted in the Raiders of the Lost Ark, who bow down when archeologist Belloq, assumes the role of the native Shaman, by holding up the sacred golden head, to which the natives bow in fear [see graphic above or at right].
Trump, Johnson & Fox News ...
... Treat Conservative Audiences like Belloq's Ignorant Natives
Trump and Johnson don't really seem to revere the Bible and its contents [nor those of the U.S. Constitution], as much as they seem to relish exploiting the symbolism of the Bible in order to use it one of their tools of mass manipulation, to further their own self-interested agendas.
This is not unlike what archeologist Belloq did, in the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie noted above. This is a practice not just used for years by Trump and Johson, but has also been widely used by Rupert Murdoch's staff of propagandists at Fox News.
Take a look and decide for yourself about Talarico. It's less than a 15 minute interview, of a rare, emerging personality on today's political landscape.
James Talarico on Stephen Colbert - not CBS
Classic Trump
Performs a Con at the National Prayer Breakfast
The Snake Oil Salesman Sold Them Something they Already Had
Donald J. Trump attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on February 7, 2026.
At the breakfast, arguably the world's greatest con man, Trump promised to protect Christians by stopping anti-Christian bias, protect prayer and religious expression within public schools, and protect faith based institutions in American society. So, what will / can Trump legally do that's actually different from the rights guaranteed all Americans in the First Amendment?
Probably not much. But it sure sounded good.
This is reminiscent of when Trump told his supporters he was anointed by God to win the presidency.
Does Trump really believe his followers and religious people are that gullible? Are Trump's followers and religious people really that gullible? You decide.
But, if they are, it's due in part to the billionaire TV News mass media manipulations of them by disinforming, misinforming, un-informing and distracting them. While this ignorance is partly the fault of the misled individuals, it is also partly the fault of us all, for allowing our societal standards and institutions to rot so significantly.
Is TV News Properly doing its Job?
Or is TV News Neglecting its Duty, like the Self-Serving Politicians?
Now, ask yourself, how much air time did billionaire TV News dedicate to Trump's extortion and intimidation of our TV News media in the first half of 2025, or about the Trump voting rig preparations currently underway in Georgia, or about how NSA Director, Tulsi Gabbard, allegedly interfered with a whistleblower report involving Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and its possible link to what appears to be Trump's massive corruption and possible trading of America's top secrets to foreign nations.
And then ask yourself how much air time did TV News dedicate to covering the story about the P. Diddy Combs trial and Savannah Guthrie's missing mom?
Note that Savannah Guthrie's abduction is one of an estimated 350 - 400 people kidnapped in the U.S. annually, and about 100 - 350 who are abducted each year [these last two categories likely overlap]. Does this allocation of air time to a local crime story, Savannah's missing mother or a celebrity court trial involving P. Diddy Combs, represent an intelligent allocation of things upon which to focus America's public's attention? Or is it a scheme to distract the public's attention from the billionaire looting and takeover of the federal government, happening right underneath our very noses, right now?
You decide.
And you decide each and every time you either turn on the TV to get your news. Or each and every time you visit a social media or web news site, to keep yourself abreast of what's really going on in this country.
TV News Reporting.
Superficialities & Distractions v. Real News
Keep in mind, that when you watch billionaire TV News, oftentimes you're not watching the real news. You're watching the billionaires' distractions from, and distortions of, the real news. You're watching cleverly manipulated perspectives of the world around you, with slickly crafted images, carefully scripted commentary and plenty of key factoid omissions. It's a customized version of reality, showing what the billionaires who control TV News, want their audiences to believe.
The choice is clear. It's Billionaire TV vs. the People's Web. It's Perception v. Reality. You decide.