Judd Legum

1. We interrupt this programming for some LEGITIMATELY GOOD NEWS Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows How did the city do it? Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue

Charlie Kirk was a champion of free speech and anyone who says otherwise will be fired

They SHUT DOWN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to avoid releasing the Epstein files.

This CNN story is more artfully crafted but continues to push the false narrative started by the New York Post:

1. A new Popular Information investigation reveals that Senate Republicans have recently launched at least six fake news sites in key states.

1. Last week, we revealed that the New York Post published a fake cover story claiming "thousands" of 9/11 families were trying to ban Mamdani from the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero. Instead of admitting its error, the Post quietly edited the article, adding even less credible info.

United Democracy Project, an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, is running YouTube ads featuring an AI-generated Trump assisting Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan campaign. “Don’t Help Trump’s Candidate,” the ad warns. Meanwhile, United Democracy Project’s largest donor is Paul Singer, a major Trump fundraiser.

Meta is spending $600 billion+ to build out its AI model. That model is being aggressively integrated into platforms used by 3.9 billion people. This week, Meta announced its AI will be trained on content from Newsmax, the far-right website with a history of promoting pro-Trump conspiracy theories.

David Barton is a fake historian who wrote a book on Thomas Jefferson that was so inaccurate his publisher was forced to pull it from the shelves. Now Barton, and his son Tim, are advising Trump on his anti-Smithsonian crusade.

If you appreciate journalism by humans who are willing to make phone calls I have one request: please sign up for my newsletter. There are no paywalls. popular.info

1. This New York Post cover: “Thousands of 9/11 families demand Mamdani be banned from 25th-Anniversary” is a brazen lie. How do I know? I interviewed the organizer of the petition.

1. American taxpayers are spending $2 BILLION every year providing Medicaid benefits to hundreds of thousands of employees of Amazon and Walmart, a new analysis by Popular Information reveals.

News outlets that covered the US-Saudi nuclear deal without mentioning that Jared Kushner, Trump’s top foreign policy advisor, is getting paid by the Saudi government: WSJ NYT AP Reuters CNN NBC ABC CBS The Guardian Semafor Washington Post Fox News New York Post BBC Newsweek MS NOW