Matthew Gertz

"Benny Johnson stands out, even among this collection of cranks, grifters, propagandists, and sycophants. He is the Jesse Watters of the streaming set, someone who has parlayed having absolutely nothing to add to any conversation into a lucrative career as a shill for President Donald Trump."

If you would like to understand Benny's principles, here's a story. While at IJR on the day of the 2015 Roanoke shooting, Benny cried in the newsroom. Not because of the shooting itself, but because we told him he wasn't allowed to post the video of the murder on the website.

MAGA influencer Benny Johnson’s job is to have no principles. Business is booming.

Benny Johnson had perhaps the best 2025 of any streamer on the right, drawing more than 1 billion YouTube views as he hobnobbed with Trump administration power players and GOP elites.

His job is to have no principles. Business is booming. www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnso...

What are J.D. Vance and Sean Hannity so afraid of?

What are J.D. Vance and Sean Hannity so afraid of?
The GOP firestorm over Nick Fuentes went unmentioned during Thursday’s interview www.mediamatters.org/nick-fuentes...

The next phase of the Fuentes-Carlson saga targets Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat

The next phase of the Fuentes-Carlson saga targets Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat
www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carls...

Opinion | Tucker Carlson is getting slammed by conservatives — but not on Fox News Carlson allowed the Holocaust-denying white supremacist streamer, who has said “Hitler is awesome,” to sand down his vile rhetoric for Carlson’s huge audience.

My latest for @msnbc.com details how Fox News has totally ignored the massive right-wing firestorm about Tucker Carlson hosting Nick Fuentes that has commentators and politicians taking sides and Heritage in meltdown. Literally no one has directly mentioned it on-air. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Thank you Speaker Pelosi.

Some things Sean Hannity and his guests said over the last two weeks about the NJ gubernatorial: "very competitive," "that race is closing very fast," it's “tighter than ever," "New Jersey could be a shocker tomorrow."

The Democrat, Mikie Sherrill, won by 12. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/sea...

Trump celebrates CBS News’ new leadership as “the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press”

Not a compliment to be praised by a president who regularly calls for the destruction of your competitors.
www.mediamatters.org/cbs/trump-ce...

Of course Tucker Carlson is promoting Nick Fuentes

Tucker Carlson is who we said he was.
www.mediamatters.org/white-nation...

Pete Hegseth is replacing the Pentagon press corps with MAGA propagandists Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is stifling the Pentagon’s channels for public information and cutting off avenues for accountability as U.S. forces deploy on missions of dubious legality that are frau...

The Pentagon goes dark. www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth...

Bret Baier touts CBS News’ move toward “more balance” and “coverage that’s fair”

Fox News' Bret Baier — who is reportedly under consideration to take over CBS Evening News — spent part of Thursday afternoon praising CBS News’ rightward shift and panning mainstream reporters for purportedly demonstrating “Trump derangement syndrome."
www.mediamatters.org/bret-baier/b...

Fox viewers were told “there is no violence from the right” hours after arraignment of Jan 6 rioter for allegedly threatening to kill top Democrat

Fox viewers were told “there is no violence from the right” hours after the arraignment of a Jan 6 rioter for allegedly threatening to kill a top Democrat. Fox all but ignored that story. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...

Laura Ingraham regularly claimed the business dealings of Hunter Biden in the years prior to his father’s presidential election implicated Joe Biden in rampant corruption.

Now she's gone into business with Don Jr. www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump...

1. Republicans/right-wing media spent weeks blaming discrete acts of political violence on incitement by overheated Democratic rhetoric.
2. They are currently arguing that nationwide protests planned for tomorrow are "Hate America" rallies by antifa/pro-Hamas/communist agents.

Glenn Beck says that after he aired a show on Antifa, FBI agents acting on the behest of Kash Patel came to get tips. Here's who the segment targeted, largely through strained connections and guilt by association: www.mediamatters.org/glenn-beck/g...

Eric Trump attacks Jack Smith for “planting” evidence during Mar-a-Lago search that predated Smith’s service as special counsel

Eric Trump, in three different right-wing media interviews over the past week, accused Jack Smith of "planting" evidence obtained in the Aug. 2023 Mar-a-Lago raid.

Problem: Smith didn't become special counsel until three months after that search. www.mediamatters.org/eric-trump/e...

The Trump administration is positioning the upcoming No Kings protests as an excuse for crushing dissent

President Donald Trump, Republican officials, and their right-wing media allies have laid the groundwork for a broadbased attack on core progressive and Democratic Party institutions in response to Saturday’s planned nationwide “No Kings” protests. www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump...

Blaming the left for Trump's weaponization of law enforcement means pretending his first term didn't happen

Trump, an authoritarian to his core, repeatedly sought the investigation, prosecution, and imprisonment of his political foes throughout his first four years in the White House.
www.mediamatters.org/washington-p...

Thinking that Trump did something wrong leading up to and on January 6 was the immediate consensus, but the right has dismantled it over the years, and the Post is now on the same side as Tucker Carlson www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/cal...

In which the editorial board of the Washington Post effectively endorses President Nixon's claim that "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal."

Calls for retaliatory prosecutions are the next phase in the right’s rewriting of January 6

The MAGA right’s cynical effort to rewrite the history of January 6 reached a new but seemingly inevitable low this week. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/cal...

Why the right-wing media apparatus is suddenly yelling about Jack Smith supposedly spying on GOP senators

Most Americans think Jan. 6 was quite bad; unfortunately that group does not include the president, the top federal law enforcement officials, virtually all GOP politicians, and the media megaphone supporting them all.
www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/why...

Why the right-wing media apparatus is suddenly yelling about Jack Smith supposedly spying on GOP senators

Why the right-wing media apparatus is suddenly yelling about Jack Smith supposedly spying on GOP senators www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/why...

A Trump-appointed judge just demolished right-wing fearmongering about Portland www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tru...

Trump and his complicit Attorney General Pam Bondi are using Charlie Kirk's assassination to illegally target the left. @mattgertz.bsky.social explains on today's pod.
bit.ly/Click-2-Listen
youtu.be/3jZwMU8DqMA

The masks slip as Fox propagandists reveal they want health care premiums to skyrocket

Mentions of the Obamacare subsidies whose elimination they support are few and far between, as the hosts instead try to redirect the attention of their audience and stoke their rage over the prospect of undocumented immigrants receiving benefits. www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/mas...

A January 6 “false flag” claim made it to the president

A January 6 “false flag” claim made it to the president www.mediamatters.org/january-6-in...

I warned about this possibility last October. www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump...

. @adamserwer.bsky.social is correct. A major difference between Trump I and II is that lots of people decided not to fight this time around. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...