🗞️ The Gaslight Gazette (May 28, 2025)
Your Biweekly Bullsh*t Detector
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Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Gaslight Gazette, a new biweekly dispatch from the front lines of the information war. Each edition, published here on my Substack, 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.
This is where AI-generated propaganda gets debunked. Where billionaire temper tantrums are deconstructed. Where deepfakes, fake outrage, smear campaigns, and censorship ops are dragged into the daylight.
🔥 What You’ll Get Every Two Weeks:
The week’s most brazen lies—dissected, debunked, and defanged
The truth behind weaponized narratives like “white genocide” and “woke mind virus”
Watchdog reporting on censorship and media manipulation
Radical reading recs to sharpen your lens and fire up your mind
This isn’t your average media roundup—it’s survival training for the disinformation age.
📢 Subscribe. Share. Stay dangerous—to the gaslighters.
🚨 FAKE NEWS ON FIRE: From Imaginary Gang Tattoos to a Fictional White Genocide
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.
🕵️♂️ The Case of the Chicago Bulls Gangster: When Wearing a Hoodie Becomes a Terrorist Offense
Meet Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran man deported from the U.S. in March 2025 for his alleged gang affiliation. The Executive Branch claims he’s an MS-13 gang member—a convenient narrative for anti-immigrant policies. The “evidence”? Court documents reviewed by the BBC reveal the government flagged him as a gang member largely because he wore Chicago Bulls gear. That’s right—apparently, rocking an NBA logo now counts as probable cause.
Things escalated in the Abrego-Garcia saga when President Donald Trump defied a court order to facilitate Abrego’s return from El Salvador. Trump denies defying the court order. Trump relied on fake news to justify his decision. In April, he displayed a photo of tattoos reading “M,” “S,” “1,” and “3” supposedly on Abrego’s hand.
But verified photos of Abrego-Garcia in custody during a sit-down with a U.S. senator show no trace of the tattoos Trump claimed he had.
Without due process—and relying on evidence that ranges from irrelevant (NBA gear) to fabricated (imaginary tattoos)—this is textbook disinformation.
This is why due process exists: so the public can determine whether a court should find someone guilty of gang affiliation based on nothing more than Bulls gear and nonexistent tattoos.
🤖 Grok, Elon, and the Ghost of White Genocide: AI’s Favorite Conspiracy Theory Makes a Comeback
Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot, Grok, recently pushed a debunked white genocide narrative about South Africa into user queries. The amplification of the false story was especially disconcerting because it often appeared to users who were not searching for or discussing anything related to white genocide or South Africa.
Musk’s team blamed a glitch. Then reports surfaced that Grok also engaged in Holocaust denial. This isn’t just a tech failure—it’s an ideological red flag, especially given Musk’s own bizarre behavior, including a Hitler-esque salute earlier in the Trump 2.0 era.
Indeed, it raises an important media literacy lesson: these tools are not objective. They reflect the biases of their creators and amplify whatever content the platform owner directs them to. It's a critical example of why we must use AI—and not let the owners of AI use us.
Still, that’s not the end of the story. The plot thickened during an Oval Office meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump repeated the white genocide claim and even began granting refugee status to Afrikaners.
But the facts? South African police data from late 2024 show that only one of twelve farm-related murders involved a white victim.
And those photos Trump used to “prove” his claim? One came from The American Thinker and was credited to Reuters—except Reuters confirmed it was actually from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another image of “white crosses” was from a 2020 protest—not a graveyard of murdered farmers.
This is fake news. And it seems that Musk and others are manufacturing evidence to perpetuate this falsehood—one Trump uses to convince the electorate and the world that a white genocide exists in South Africa.
🔪 Character Assassination: Bernie, AOC, and Why the Media Hates the Messenger
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."
The Oligarchy Fights Back: Inside the Media Smear Campaign Against Sanders and AOC
With Democratic leadership flailing and young progressives like David Hogg (a survivor of the Parkland shooting) getting sidelined, many voters are turning to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders—who’s currently on a smash-hit Fighting Oligarchy Tour, seemingly passing the torch to Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).
But Sanders and AOC’s message threatens more than just Republicans—it threatens the wealthy everywhere, including those in media. It's no secret that dominant media in the U.S. is owned by a handful of corporations, and researchers have noted that many in the media come from the same elite schools and communities they cover. This results in a blind spot when it comes to abuses of power or the needs of the poor and working class.
Perhaps this explains why establishment media has dusted off its playbook to stop the momentum of the Fighting Oligarchy Tour. First, they belittled voters—suggesting the masses are too dumb to understand the term “oligarchy.” Sanders flatly rejected this narrative when challenged by legacy media personalities.
When that line of attack failed, the media pivoted to personal attacks, hammering Sanders for flying private. Let’s unpack that. If Sanders flies private, it’s likely due to Senate security, scheduling demands, or his own income. But unlike the oligarchs he’s rallying against, Sanders champions policies that would hurt his own class—just like former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) did in some respects.
The media’s fixation on his transportation is a diversion. They attack the messenger because the message—a fairer, more just society—is a direct threat to their privilege.
This is classic propaganda: discredit the speaker to neutralize the speech.
Censorship Nation: From the Newsroom to the Pentagon, the Crackdown is Here
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.”
📺 Trump’s $20 Billion Censorship Crusade: When Billionaires, Broadcasts, and Bullies Collide
The Trump Administration’s use of intimidation as a form of censorship against CBS dates back to the 2024 presidential election. Trump is suing CBS for $20 billion, alleging manipulation in an edited interview with his 2024 presidential rival, former Vice-President, Kamala Harris.
The video was indeed edited—something common in news production (Watch a report on the edits here). The question is whether CBS did this to enhance Harris’s message or simply to make the segment more engaging for audiences. Typically, it’s the latter. Regardless of intent, the edit made Harris appear more succinct and focused—an improvement over her usual word salads.
Nonetheless, the timing of Trump’s attack is also telling: it comes as CBS’s parent company, Paramount, seeks government approval for a merger. CBS and Paramount reportedly felt the pressure. Executives began second-guessing editorial decisions on CBS programs. This led to the resignation of longtime 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens last month. Owens cited a collapse in journalistic independence as the reason for his departure.
This month, CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon also resigned—reportedly due to internal clashes over Gaza coverage and political pressure. Some insiders believe CBS is softening its Trump coverage to smooth over the merger deal. Journalist Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes even blamed Trump’s intimidation tactics for pushing CBS into practices that compromise objectivity—both on air and during a recent college commencement address.
Still, there’s been some resistance. One group involved in the merger threatened to take CBS to court if it caves, calling Trump’s demands tantamount to bribery—a potential game-changer in the fight for press freedom. The outcome of this saga could have major implications for the future of press freedom.
🧱The Pentagon Now Requires a Chaperone for Journalists: Transparency for Me, Not for Thee
On May 23, former Fox News Channel personality and current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo tightening restrictions on reporters at the Pentagon. Under the new policy, journalists must now be escorted by Department of Defense (DoD)-approved personnel to conduct in-person interviews. This amounts to state control of the media—a practice antithetical to the principles of a free press in a free society. It’s especially hypocritical coming from an administration that calls itself the “most transparent administration in history.”
Following a series of anti-leak crackdowns—much of it a reaction to the SignalGate controversy—this move reeks of censorship. While controlling press access isn’t unprecedented, this new policy directly undermines the principle of an independent press holding the military-industrial complex accountable.
In plain terms? You pay for the Pentagon with your taxes—but good luck finding out what they’re actually doing with your money.
📚 Recommended Reading
This section features helpful resources and articles from the past two weeks for anyone looking to strengthen their media literacy skills and become more news-savvy.
Media Gaslighting, Explained in One Brilliant Essay
This week’s must-read is Sisonke Msimang’s razor-sharp guide: “How to Write About Palestine: A Concise Guide to Proper Media Behavior When Discussing the ‘Complicated’ Situation.”
It’s a masterclass in exposing the media’s double standards and malpractice in covering Israel-Gaza.
If you find yourself defensive while reading it—good. That discomfort is the first step toward truth. Don’t cling to fake news to protect fragile egos. Evolve. Admit when the facts don’t align with your assumptions.
We don’t shame people for changing their minds. We shame those who twist the facts to protect their worldview.
🧠 That’s a Wrap — But the Fight’s Not Over
Disinformation is the virus. The Gaslight Gazette is your biweekly vaccine.
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Brand New Episodes of The Disinfo Detox
CBS in Crisis, Biden’s Decline Ignored, and Grok Goes Rogue — Bill Yousman Unpacks It All. In this episode, host Nolan Higdon is joined by Professor Bill Yousman, communication & media scholar at Sacred Heart University, for a brutally honest breakdown of the week’s biggest media failures and political misdirection.
Detoxing the Headlines: Dissecting Media Failures from CNN to South Africa. Host Nolan Higdon and co-host Sydney Sullivan break down the most critical and controversial headlines from the worlds of tech, media, education, and politics — stories the corporate press often bungles or buries.
Sharyl Attkisson: How Legacy Media Lost the Plot on Biden, Trump, and the Truth. Nolan Higdon sits down with award-winning investigative journalist and host of Full Measure, Sharyl Attkisson, for a sharp, wide-ranging conversation on the failures of the modern press and the rise of institutional distrust.
Nolan Higdon is a political analyst, author, host of The Disinfo Detox Podcast, lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Project Censored National Judge. Higdon’s areas of concentration include critical AI literacy, podcasting, digital culture, news media history & propaganda, and critical media literacy. All of Higdon’s work is available at Substack (https://nolanhigdon.substack.com/). He is the author of The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education (2020); Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy (2022); The Media And Me: A Guide To Critical Media Literacy For Young People (2022); and Surveillance Education: Navigating the conspicuous absence of privacy in schools (Routledge). Higdon is a founding member of the Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas. Higdon is a regular source of expertise for CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle.
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