TV News LIES

The 6-3 decision in Fischer v United States was highly anticipated because one-fourth of the defendants – 350 of the first 1,350 people prosecuted in the riot – were charged with obstruction. Two of four charges against Trump in his federal election interference case are based on the law.

The high court sent the case back to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled that the obstruction law did apply to Jan. 6, to review it again.

"Prosecutors have to prove that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects or other things used in an office proceeding, or attempted to do so,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

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CNN is coming under heavy criticism after two of its top anchors failed to offer real-time fact checks of false statements made by former President Trump and President Biden as they moderated Thursday night’s presidential debate.

During the highly-anticipated and nationally televised clash, both Trump and Biden made a number of misleading or false statements about topics ranging from crime to immigration to the economy.

Moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on multiple occasions offered follow up questions when a candidate had not used up all of their allotted speaking time or had not answered a question directly.

But neither, however, offered any fact checks to the two men’s assertions during the 90-minute broadcast.

“CNN’s decision to abrogate its journalistic responsibilities by not fact checking Trump’s firehose of lies is unforgivable,” wrote former cable news host Keith Olbermann in one social media post.

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The tense interactions between judge Aileen Cannon and special counsel prosecutors in Donald Trump’s case over retaining classified documents came to a head this week when she again reprimanded one of the lead prosecutors on Monday for his tone.

We have reported for months about Cannon’s hostility to special-counsel prosecutors, but the recent stretch of hearings has also made clear how often they also shoot themselves in the foot.

Cannon is perhaps one of the easier judges to read at hearings, because she tends to ask questions only when she is skeptical of a position being advanced, whether by Trump’s lawyers or by prosecutors.

The 6-3 decision, led by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was a response to a suit that came during a hot-button period when social media was thick with contentious posts over COVID-19, vaccines, top government scientist Anthony Fauci, and other emotional topics. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Barrett, writing for the majority, said the challengers argued that unfettered speech on social media is critical to their work as scientists, pundits and activists.

“But they do not point to any specific instance of content moderation that caused them identifiable harm,” Barrett wrote. “They have therefore failed to establish an injury that is sufficiently ‘concrete and particularized.’”

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Progressive groups reacted with disappointment and anger over Jamaal Bowman’s decisive primary loss to a moderate Democrat in New York’s 16th district, calling for the party to cut ties with pro-Israel lobbying groups they blame for the result.

In a letter to the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, more than a dozen progressive organizations said they had “dire concerns” over the party’s continued association with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), “the future of the Democratic Party, the future of our multiracial democracy, and the future of our planet”.