TV News LIES

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said the American Revolution has been “sanitized,” calling the war “dark and bloody.”

More...“I think we have sanitized the war. And I — I think it’s out of an understandable fear that if somehow we reveal how dark and bloody it is, that it will somehow diminish those big ideas in Philadelphia in [1776] and then 11 years later in [1787], when they do the Constitution,” Burns told NBC News’s Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday.

“It doesn’t. They’re made — those ideas are made even more impressive because of the improbability of the struggle, the odds against success, the time it took to do it, the — all of the problems, the winters at Valley Forge and Morristown in which people are dying of disease,” he added.

Burns’s comments come amid heated debates about how American history should be presented, with mMore...any pushing for American history’s darker aspects, including slavery and the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans, to be highlighted more often.

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Democrat Christian Menefee won a Texas U.S. House seat in a special election Saturday that will narrow Republicans' already-slim majority, telling President Trump that the Democratic district "topples corrupt presidencies." Menefee, the Harris County attorney, prevailed in a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025.

In addition to the Houston-area race, there was a special election in North Texas' Tarrant County for a state senate seat. In a major political upset, Democrat Taylor Rehmet defehttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/democrat-christian-menefee-wins-special-election-u-s-house-in-texas/ated Republican Leigh Wambsganss in that race in Tarrant County, the largest Republican county in the nation, according to complete but unofficial returns. 

The seat representing the heavily Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for nearly a year.

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Donald Trump has instructed the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, not to intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats unless local authorities ask for federal help amid mounting criticism of his administration’s immigration crackdown.

On his social media site, Trump posted that “under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help”.

He provided no further details on how his order would affect operations by US Customs and Immigration Enforcement and DHS personnel, or other federal agencies, but added: “We will, however, guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists.”

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Texas A&M University on Friday announced it is ending its programs in women's and gender studies as part of a broader effort to eliminate teaching related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The university said it had also modified hundreds of courses and canceled six to comply with a policy adopted last November that prohibits, without approval from the campus president, teaching that "will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity."

The latest changes are designed to "protect academic integrity and restore public trust," Tommy Williams, the university's interim president, said in a statement. "That has been our focus through this process and will remain our focus as we move forward."

The university said the decision to eliminate women's and gender studies stemmed both from the new policy and "limited student interest in the program based on enrollment over the past several years."

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Thousands chanted and marched in New York City on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s escalating mass deportation campaign.

Among the protesters were young and old people, all braving plunging cold temperatures in thick coats, hats and gloves.

As the sun began setting, demonstrators chanted against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), referring to that agency, the Ku Klux Klan, and fascism in the same breath.

Thousands chanted and marched in New York City on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s escalating mass deportation campaign.

Among the protesters were young and old people, all braving plunging cold temperatures in thick coats, hats and gloves.

As the sun began setting, demonstrators chanted against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), referring to that agency, the Ku Klux Klan, and fascism in the same breath.

“Abolish ICE!” and “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA!” the crowds chanted. They also chanted, “Chinga la migra” – which is a colloquial way to say “fuck immigration enforcement” in Spanish.

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The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office was reportedly removed from his post after questioning the Trump administration’s renewed interest in investigating the role of Fulton county, Georgia, in the 2020 election.

The agent, Paul W Brown, had expressed concerns around the unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in Fulton county, which have been perpetuated by Donald Trump since he was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to an MS NOW report on Friday. Citing sources, MS NOW also reported that Brown refused to carry out searches and seizures of records connected to the election that Trump lost four years before winning a second presidency in 2024.

News of Brown’s ouster came after the justice department on Thursday executed a search warrant and seized records from the Fulton county elections office in the Atlanta area. Authorities seized 700 boxes related to 2020 election results in the county, which Biden won.

Trump’s national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, was also seen at the county’s election office that day, drawing concern from Democratic lawmakers about partisan overreach.

Brown was replaced the week before the service of the search warrant at the elections office, as first reported by the Associated Press. The personnel decision was not publicized by the FBI, and the AP said the reason for Brown’s removal was not immediately clear.

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