Gaslight Gazette (June 9, 2025)
Fake Reports, AI Scams, Media Smears, and Real Consequences
The Gaslight Gazette, a biweekly dispatch from the front lines of the information war, uses a critical media lens to examine stories and narratives in the news. The goal? To spotlight the falsehoods and propaganda that shape discourse in American media. Think of it as your BS firewall: a no-spin zone where lies get torched and truth takes the mic.
💀FAKE NEWS
This section chronicles some of the most pressing examples of disinformation and fake news from the previous two weeks. I define fake news as information that appears to be real news but is baseless, inaccurate, misleading, or false.
2025’s Fake News Crisis Makes 2016 Look Like Child’s Play
“AI-generated low-quality news sites are popping up all over the place,” write Jon Roozenbeek and his Cambridge colleagues in The Conversation (May 2025), warning that AI-generated images are also flooding platforms like Facebook. One study even found that half of all content on LinkedIn is now AI-generated. Another 2024 study estimated that nearly a quarter of all internet traffic consists of bots spreading disinformation and harmful content.
This wave of synthetic content makes the 2016 fake news panic seem quaint. Back in 2016, Aviv Ovadya, CEO of the AI & Democracy Foundation, issued a dire warning: “We are so screwed, it’s beyond what most of us can imagine… the further you look into the future, the worse it gets.” Nearly a decade later, he’s been proven right.
The issue isn’t just that AI content is fake—it’s how convincing it is. Entire news segments, featuring lifelike anchors with realistic voices and high production value, are now being generated entirely by AI. (You can watch some of the videos by clicking here)
This realism opens the door to everything from playful deception to serious harm. Apps like Fake My Run let users create fake jogging routes to impress their friends. But the same technology has been used for harassment, including AI-generated nudes of classmates.
Even creators of fake content are getting scammed. A recent report uncovered a rise in phony AI tools that claim to turn text into video—but instead install malware like Trojans and backdoors. Meanwhile, criminals are using AI to mimic government officials' voices, and generate convincing images of powerful people to dupe investors.
Even AI companies are confused about why their own tools use the data they collect to blackmail the very users who provided it. The fake news crisis didn’t end—it leveled up. It’s time we do the same by investing in critical thinking and media literacy at every level.
The MAHA Report Fiasco: A Case Study in AI Misuse and Media Illiteracy
On May 22, 2025, the long-awaited MAHA Report — officially titled Make Our Children Healthy Again: Assessment — was released to the public. The report was issued by the President’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, which was established by President Donald Trump via executive order on February 13, 2025. It was chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), who claimed the report drew on over 500 studies and other sources of so-called “gold-standard” science.
But within hours, researchers discovered a disturbing problem: many of the report’s citations were completely fabricated — referencing studies that didn’t exist. The most likely culprit? Artificial intelligence. AI tools are known to “hallucinate” content, generating convincing but entirely false information. Indeed, lawyers have been caught submitting AI generated briefs which contain non-existent case law hallucinated by their AI.
After backlash, the White House claimed it had corrected the errors — and then bizarrely denied that AI was to blame: Instead, officials attributed the fake citations to vague “formatting issues.” But they offered no explanation as to how formatting could generate fake studies out of thin air.
This fiasco highlights a dangerous trend: the rapid integration of AI into high-stakes areas like public health, without public understanding of the technology’s limits. When a society that’s largely media illiterate embraces AI as a shortcut to knowledge, the result isn’t smarter policy — it’s a disaster.
Instead of using human intelligence to make informed decisions about health, we’re outsourcing trust to a corporate tool that fabricates facts and spreads misinformation. That’s not innovation — that’s negligence.
Curious about the MAHA Report? Sydney Sullivan and I break it down on The Disinfo Detox:
🔪 Character Assassination
This section chronicles some of the most pressing examples of character assassination from the previous two weeks. The Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP) at George Mason University defines character assassination as "the deliberate destruction of an individual's reputation or credibility through character attacks."
Staff Exodus, Medical Incidents, Missed Votes: But It’s the Media’s Fault?
In May 2025, Senator John Fetterman claimed the media was “weaponizing” his mental health struggles against him. Fetterman was apparently frustrated that the news media were fulfilling their First Amendment duty to hold him, an elected official, accountable. Attacking the character of the media and its reporting is one of the oldest tricks in politics—but it does not erase legitimate concerns.
Fetterman suffered a stroke during his 2022 campaign but still won the Senate seat despite limited public appearances. Since taking office, however, troubling reports have surfaced: Staff leaks about his inability to perform his duties, automobile accidents, sudden policy shifts that frustrate the Democratic Party, and a wave of high-level staff departures—including his chief of staff. Meanwhile, he’s been largely absent from Senate duties, skipping key committee votes.
These are not baseless attacks—they're red flags. The issue is not his condition, but the apparent lack of transparency. As the President Joe Biden administration has learned, it’s the coverup, not the health, that destroys public trust. Fetterman wants us to believe media are out of line for performing their constitutionally protected duty
Framed and Deported: How a Fake Trump Threat Fooled DHS
On May 28, 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem praised ICE for arresting “an illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump.” The agency claimed a handwritten letter had surfaced from a man vowing to kill Trump and then “self-deport.” It included a photo of Ramón Morales Reyes, a Mexican immigrant who had previously crossed the border multiple times between 1998 and 2005.
Reyes was arrested in Milwaukee after dropping off his child at school — and now faces deportation.
But then the story unraveled.
Handwriting analysis revealed Reyes didn’t write the letter. Investigators now believe it was forged by Demetric D. Scott — currently in jail for armed robbery and assaulting Reyes.
Scott allegedly wrote the threat in an effort to have the victim of his crimes deported. He’s now facing federal charges for fabricating a death threat against Trump. In the Reyes case, the consequences of fake news were not just headlines—they were handcuffs.
Trump Pushes Zombie Biden Conspiracy — Again
On May 31, 2025, President Donald Trump amplified a bonkers post on Truth Social claiming Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with a "robotic engineered soulless mindless entity."
The post comes at a time when Biden and the Democratic Party are already under scrutiny for concealing the extent of his cognitive decline. Instead of engaging with that legitimate concern, Trump has latched onto the baseless claim that Biden was not even alive during his presidency. The absurdity is compounded by the fact that Trump and his allies have also spent years insisting Biden was alive—but too mentally and physically unfit to serve. In March, for example, Trump mocked Biden for using an autopen, suggesting he was too weak to sign documents himself. Trump has even launched an investigation into a supposed cover-up of Biden’s condition. So which is it? Dead and replaced by a robot—or just old and struggling?
If you're going to peddle fake news, at least make sure your lies agree with each other.
🚫Censorship
This section chronicles some of the most pressing examples of censorship from the previous two weeks. Project Censored defines censorship as “the suppression of information, whether purposeful or not, by any method—including bias, omission, underreporting, or self-censorship—that prevents the public from fully knowing what is happening in society.”
Silenced and Surveilled: When Big Tech and Big Brother Join Forces
In May 2025, Twitch suspended internet personality Hasan Piker— allegedly suspended for discussing a manifesto linked to Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. Around the same time, journalist Ken Klippenstein reported being visited twice by the FBI for reporting on the same document. “The visit didn’t surprise me,” Klippenstein said, “but its tone did: it was aggressive and threatening.”
Both altercations reveal that some would rather the manifesto stay hidden. Whether one agrees with its content is irrelevant. The First Amendment protects our right to access, share, and discuss information freely. That’s why coordinated efforts—from corporate bans to federal pressure—to silence media creators are so troubling. It’s fundamentally anti-democratic.
In the U.S., we’re rightly wary of government censorship—but often overlook corporate censorship, which can be just as dangerous. Fake news peddlers have long silenced truth-tellers by suppressing competing narratives. As these recent cases show, that tactic is still very much in play.
🚨BIG NEWS!: Disinfo Detox Podcast Launches New Feature: Media Literacy Wrecking Ball
I’m excited to launch The Media Literacy Wrecking Crew—a brand-new feature on The Disinfo Detox where Sydney Sullivan and I team up with media literacy experts to break down the headlines, call out the spin, and show what real media literacy looks like in action.
If you value this kind of work and want to see it grow, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack or making a donation. Your support helps us expand our offerings and improve our content. Can’t chip in right now? No worries—liking, commenting, subscribing, and sharing on YouTube helps just as much.
🎥 Here’s a clip from this week’s episode:
How Charlie Kirk & Jordan Peterson Trick Viewers | Media Literacy Wrecking Crew Exposes It
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Let’s wreck some media nonsense together.
🔥Recent Essay in The Hill
Too little, too late: A media in crisis blames Democrats for the Biden cover-up by Nolan Higdon, opinion contributor, June 2, 2025. “In May 2025, days before it was announced that former President Biden had been diagnosed with cancer, NBC ran a sensational headline: “Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney at June fundraiser: new book.” It cited “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” co-authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, detailing how the president’s team concealed his cognitive and physical decline — and raising ethical questions about transparency….”Read More Here
🔥Recent Media Appearances
Donald Trump Travel Ban: Bay Area immigrant communities criticize newest proclamation for targeting Black and brown nations - ABC7 San Francisco Nolan Higdon discusses Trump’s Travel Ban with ABC’s Anser Hassan.
🧠What are Some Trustworthy Media Literacy Organizations and Resources?
Looking to dive deeper? The U.S. has a growing network of top-notch media literacy orgs. Click here for a curated list of trusted resources at NolanHigdon.com.
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