MEDIA BIAS
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE BIASED?
If you are familiar with these “loaded” words and use them, you are likely biased towards the right politically: radical left, socialist, communist, woke mob, groomer, elites, globalists, illegal alien, war on Christmas, mainstream media, big government, cancel culture, America First, defund the police, fake news.
If you are familiar with these “loaded” words and use them, you are likely biased towards the left politically: white privilege, systemic racism, toxic masculinity, hate speech, dismantle the system, billionaire class, climate denier, MAGA extremists, gender-affirming care, living wage, corporate greed, right-wing propaganda, gun fetishism.
Sources below have few loaded words (words that try to influence readers with emotion or stereotypes).
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/center/
POPULAR VOTE
Only 5 presidents ever lost the popular vote but won their election since America began presidential elections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote
https://www.history.com/news/presidents-electoral-college-popular-vote
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/5-46-presidents-came-office-without-winning-national-popular-vote
It is true that Trump in 2024 became only the second Republican to win the popular vote since 1988.
WHAT IS A LANDSLIDE?
Even though Trump’s win was not a true landslide victory, the mandate for change is real.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/landslide-or-not-trump-won-a-mandate-for-change-in-washington/
Trump’s team pushes the idea of a massive landslide victory but this is not true.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5w9w160xdo
This chart helps see why Trump’s 2024 victory, while strong when looking at electoral votes, was not a landslide.
+------+------------------+---------+------------+----+------------------+---------+------------+----+ | Year | Winner | PV% | PV | EV | Loser | % Pop. | PV | EV | +------+------------------+---------+------------+----+------------------+---------+------------+----+ | 2024 | Donald Trump | 49.8% | 77,284,118 | 312| Kamala Harris | 48.3% | 74,999,166 | 226| | 2020 | Joe Biden | 51.3% | 81,283,098 | 306| Donald Trump | 46.8% | 74,222,958 | 232| | 2016 | Donald Trump | 46.1% | 62,984,828 | 304| Hillary Clinton | 48.2% | 65,917,029 | 227| | 2012 | Barack Obama | 51.1% | 65,915,796 | 332| Mitt Romney | 47.2% | 60,933,504 | 206| | 2008 | Barack Obama | 52.9% | 69,498,516 | 365| John McCain | 45.7% | 59,948,323 | 173| | 2004 | George W. Bush | 50.7% | 62,040,610 | 286| John Kerry | 48.3% | 59,028,444 | 251| | 2000 | George W. Bush | 47.9% | 50,456,002 | 271| Al Gore | 48.4% | 50,999,897 | 266| | 1996 | Bill Clinton | 49.2% | 47,400,198 | 379| Bob Dole | 40.7% | 39,197,469 | 159| | 1992 | Bill Clinton | 43.0% | 44,909,889 | 370| George H.W. Bush | 37.4% | 39,104,550 | 168| | 1988 | George H.W. Bush | 53.4% | 48,886,597 | 426| Michael Dukakis | 45.6% | 41,809,476 | 111| | 1984 | Ronald Reagan | 58.8% | 54,455,472 | 525| Walter Mondale | 40.6% | 37,577,352 | 13 | | 1980 | Ronald Reagan | 50.7% | 43,903,230 | 489| Jimmy Carter | 41.0% | 35,480,407 | 49 | +------+------------------+---------+------------+----+------------------+---------+------------+----+
IT WAS A SIGNIFICANT VICTORY
Trump won all of this year’s seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Harris fared worse in these states than Joe Biden did four years earlier.
Trump’s margins of victory in those seven states were wider — easily — than the margins of the seven closest states in the 2020 Trump-Biden election, and every close presidential contest this century.
Including votes counted through Nov. 19, Trump’s collective margin in this year’s seven battleground states was about 760,000 (this is a very small margin. By comparison, the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore — which the Supreme Court decided after a weeks long Florida recount — produced collective margins of about 46,000 in the seven closest states (this is an extremely small margin), or about one-sixteenth as much as in 2024.
2020 VOTE FRAUD
Few top Fox people who “on the air” claimed voter fraud actually believed it. See details about the hosts in particular and Murdoch the owner of Fox News.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems_v._Fox_News_Network
Nice article that includes the exact texts showing even the people at Fox who were very influential in getting people to believe in voter fraud did not believe it themselves. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/02/25/business/media/fox-news-dominion-tucker-carlson.html
Long, dense but very informative report by Republicans who systematically debunk and give actual facts on the 2020 election:
https://lostnotstolen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Lost-Not-Stolen-The-Conservative-Case-that-Trump-Lost-and-Biden-Won-the-2020-Presidential-Election-July-2022.pdf
I am open to and have asked for — sources and information that people say convinced them that voter fraud was real. I have only ever gotten hyperbole and unsupported claims. I am still waiting.
MORE ON FOX NEW TEXTS
Internal communications among Fox News leaders revealed a stark contrast between their private beliefs and the network’s public narratives regarding voter fraud. These internal messages, uncovered during defamation lawsuits, provide compelling evidence that key figures at Fox News privately dismissed allegations of widespread election fraud, even as such claims were being aired on their platforms.
Tucker Carlson’s Correspondence:
Doubts About Sidney Powell: On November 16, 2020, prime-time host Tucker Carlson texted a producer stating, “Sidney Powell is lying” about having evidence for election fraud, referring to claims made by the attorney associated with President Trump’s legal team.
Criticism of Colleague’s Fact-Checking:
Carlson expressed frustration when Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich fact-checked a tweet from President Trump that mentioned Dominion Voting Systems. In a message to fellow host Sean Hannity, Carlson wrote, “Please get her fired… It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” Heinrich’s fact-check, which stated there was no evidence of voter fraud from Dominion, was subsequently deleted.
Rupert Murdoch’s Remarks:
Dismissal of Fraud Claims:
Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch referred to President Trump’s voter fraud allegations as “really crazy stuff” in a message to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott. He expressed concern that these unfounded claims were “damaging everybody.”
Acknowledgment of Hosts’ Endorsements:
During a deposition, Murdoch conceded that certain Fox News hosts had endorsed false narratives about election fraud, despite knowing there was no credible evidence to support such claims.
Suzanne Scott’s Concerns:
Opposition to Fact-Checking:
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott criticized the network’s reporters for fact-checking false election fraud claims. She argued that such actions alienated the audience, stating that the network was “losing our audience” and that fact-checks were “bad for business.”
Implications:
These internal communications suggest that while Fox News personalities and executives privately dismissed allegations of widespread voter fraud, the network continued to broadcast and, in some cases, endorse these unfounded claims. This dichotomy between private beliefs and public messaging has been central to defamation lawsuits against Fox News by companies like Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, both alleging that the network’s dissemination of false information caused significant reputational and financial harm.
PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL RATINGS
Pollsters admit Trump is difficult to measure concerning approval rating. And polls vary quite a bit, so when I hear someone say “his approval ratings are X” it is pretty easy to know if they are conservative or liberal. They are getting cherry picked data from their biased, silo source. But there is a way to get more accurate estimates of approval ratings.
I used to spend a lot of time on Nate Silver’s 538 site that aggregated many polls for elections and approval ratings. ABC bought 538 and shut it down in March, 2025 so they can have their own polling site. But Nate has his own site now called Silver Bulletin and has a very good running chart of many polls on the President’s approval rating: https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin
Nate shows all the polls he uses data from and shows his methodology and you can usually download his data yourself if you want.
VACCINES
Many of the earliest vaccines were developed without double-blind trials because the concept of controlled trials didn’t exist or was considered impractical. However, since the 1970s, all major vaccines have undergone double-blind, placebo-controlled trials before approval.
Childhood Vaccine Guide
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/child-adolescent-age.html
Covid Vaccine – how it was created so fast versus traditional vaccines
+----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Aspect | Traditional Vaccines | COVID-19 Vaccines | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Technology | Weakened/Inactivated | mRNA (Pfizer, | | | virus or protein | Moderna), Viral | | | subunit | Vector (J&J, AZ) | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Preclinical Phase | Years | Months(mRNA research)| +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Trial Phases | Sequential (one at a | Overlapping (some | | | time) | phases ran parallel) | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Funding | Limited, phased over | Massive, global, | | | years | immediate funding | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Trial Size | Thousands over years | Tens of thousands in | | | | months | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Approval Process | 1-2 years post-trials | EUA within weeks | | | | after Phase 3 data | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+ | Post-Approval | Standard monitoring | Intense, global, | | Monitoring | | ongoing surveillance | +----------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
Testing Process for VACCINES
Phase I: Involves a small group (20-100) of healthy volunteers to assess safety and determine appropriate dosage.
Phase II: Expands to several hundred participants to evaluate immunogenicity (the ability to provoke an immune response) and further assess safety.
Phase III: Conducted with thousands of participants to confirm efficacy in preventing the disease and to monitor adverse events across diverse populations.