Media-Manipulation

Elon Musk's xAI Launches Grokipedia to Challenge Wikipedia with AI-Generated Content

| Importance: 8/10

On October 27, 2025, Elon Musk’s xAI unveiled Grokipedia, an AI-powered online encyclopedia with over 800,000 articles, positioning it as a competitor to Wikipedia. Musk announced the early beta on October 6, claiming it would deliver a ‘more fact-based, unbiased knowledge base.’ …

Elon Musk xAI ai grok information-control media-manipulation misinformation +4 more
Read more →

Paramount Pays $16M to Settle Trump's 60 Minutes Lawsuit

| Importance: 7/10

Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over a 2024 campaign-related ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris. The settlement, viewed as a strategic move to facilitate a pending corporate transaction, involves no apology and a commitment …

Donald Trump Kamala Harris Paramount Global CBS News Anna Gomez government-contracts justice-weaponization media-manipulation election-interference
Read more →

Paramount Settles Trump's $20 Billion '60 Minutes' Lawsuit for $16 Million

| Importance: 8/10

Paramount Global settled Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over a 2023 ‘60 Minutes’ interview for $16 million, with no direct payment to Trump and an agreement to release future candidate interview transcripts. The settlement comes amid Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance …

Donald Trump Trump Administration Paramount Global CBS News Kamala Harris +1 more government-contracts justice-weaponization media-manipulation regulatory-capture
Read more →

DHS Awards $200 Million Ad Contract to Republican Firms Without Full Competitive Bidding

| Importance: 8/10

The Trump administration circumvented standard procurement processes to award a $200 million DHS advertising contract to two Republican-linked political consulting firms, bypassing competitive bidding and using taxpayer funds for a politically-motivated ‘self-deportation’ media campaign.

Donald Trump Trump Administration Kristi Noem Jay Connaughton Mike McElwain regulatory-capture government-contracts immigration-policy media-manipulation
Read more →

X Threatens Interpublic Group with Potential Government Interference Over Ad Spending

| Importance: 7/10

A lawyer at Interpublic Group received a call from X in December, suggesting the company boost client spending on Musk’s platform or risk potential government interference with their pending Omnicom merger. The call hinted at using the Trump administration’s influence to pressure the …

Donald Trump Trump Administration Elon Musk Linda Yaccarino Interpublic Group government-contracts corporate-coercion media-manipulation
Read more →

Jason Miller Launches Gettr with Hidden Guo Wengui Funding

| Importance: 9/10

Former Trump aide Jason Miller officially launched Gettr, an alt-tech social media platform targeting American conservatives, with initial and significant funding from Chinese exile billionaire Guo Wengui’s family foundation. The platform, which emerged from a pre-existing Chinese-language …

Jason Miller Guo Wengui Gettr Steve Bannon War Room podcast +1 more social-media foreign-funding conservative-platform hidden-influence media-manipulation
Read more →

Guo Wengui Begins Funding Steve Bannon Operations

| Importance: 8/10

Chinese exile billionaire Guo Wengui (Miles Guo) began a $1 million contract with Steve Bannon for media consulting, marking the start of a complex political influence operation targeting Chinese Communist Party leadership. Bannon was hired to introduce Guo Media to political personalities and help …

Guo Wengui Miles Guo Steve Bannon Guo Media Xi Jinping foreign-influence chinese-exile political-funding influence-operations media-manipulation +1 more
Read more →

Trump Stages Pre-Debate Event with Bill Clinton Accusers

| Importance: 8/10

On October 9, 2016, just 90 minutes before the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Donald Trump staged a surprise press conference with four women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct or been connected to the Clintons’ legal history. The event, held at the Four Seasons Hotel …

Donald Trump Paula Jones Juanita Broaddrick Kathleen Willey Kathy Shelton +2 more trump-campaign clinton-campaign presidential-debate election-2016 deflection-strategy +2 more
Read more →

David Pecker Agrees to Catch and Kill Negative Trump Stories at Trump Tower Meeting

| Importance: 9/10

National Enquirer publisher David Pecker meets with Trump, Cohen, and Hope Hicks at Trump Tower, agrees to use tabloid to catch and kill sexual affair allegations against Trump during campaign

David Pecker Donald Trump Michael Cohen Hope Hicks National Enquirer/AMI catch-and-kill national-enquirer trump-campaign media-manipulation kompromat +1 more
Read more →

Climategate Email Hack Manufactures Controversy Before Copenhagen Summit

| Importance: 8/10

On November 17, 2009, just weeks before the crucial Copenhagen Climate Summit, hackers breached servers at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, stealing thousands of emails and computer files spanning 13 years of climate research. The stolen materials were strategically …

Climate Research Unit University of East Anglia Phil Jones Michael Mann Climate denial blogosphere climate-denial disinformation cybercrime media-manipulation information-warfare
Read more →

Rick Santelli CNBC Rant Triggers Immediate Koch Network Tea Party Response

| Importance: 9/10

CNBC reporter Rick Santelli delivers his “Rant Heard Round the World” from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor, criticizing Obama’s mortgage bailout plan and calling for a “Chicago Tea Party.” Within hours, Americans for Prosperity registers the domain …

Rick Santelli Americans for Prosperity Eric Odom FreedomWorks Phil Kerpen +1 more astroturf-organizing corporate-influence media-manipulation koch-network rapid-response
Read more →

Rick Santelli CNBC Rant Triggers Immediate Koch Network Tea Party Response

| Importance: 9/10

On February 19, 2009, CNBC reporter Rick Santelli delivered his infamous ‘Rant Heard Round the World’ from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, criticizing Obama’s mortgage bailout plan and calling for a ‘Chicago Tea Party.’ Within hours, Koch network organizations like …

Rick Santelli David Koch Charles Koch Americans for Prosperity Eric Odom +4 more astroturf-organizing corporate-influence media-manipulation koch-network rapid-response +2 more
Read more →

Armstrong Williams Paid 40K for Illegal Government Propaganda

| Importance: 7/10

The Department of Education violated federal law by paying conservative commentator Armstrong Williams 40,000 through Ketchum Inc. PR firm to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without disclosing the government funding to audiences. Williams regularly promoted NCLB on his syndicated TV and radio …

Armstrong Williams Rod Paige Department of Education Ketchum Inc Maggie Gallagher propaganda media-manipulation nclb armstrong-williams gao
Read more →

WHIG Establishes Systematic Opposition Research and Critic Monitoring Apparatus

| Importance: 8/10

The White House Iraq Group (WHIG) formalizes a strategic communications apparatus designed to systematically identify, track, and counter administration critics and potential whistleblowers. Through coordinated media messaging and high-profile official communications, WHIG developed comprehensive …

Karl Rove Karen Hughes Mary Matalin Condoleezza Rice Stephen Hadley +2 more whig systematic-retaliation opposition-research critic-monitoring character-assassination +4 more
Read more →

WHIG Launches 'Smoking Gun/Mushroom Cloud' Propaganda Blitz

| Importance: 9/10

The White House Iraq Group executes a coordinated propaganda campaign featuring the ‘smoking gun/mushroom cloud’ metaphor crafted by chief speechwriter Michael Gerson. On September 7-8, 2002, President Bush and top advisers appeared on multiple networks delivering identical nuclear fear …

White House Iraq Group Condoleezza Rice Dick Cheney George W. Bush Michael Gerson +1 more whig mushroom-cloud propaganda iraq-war nuclear-fear +2 more
Read more →

WHIG Executes Coordinated Media Blitz Demonstrating Crisis Template

| Importance: 9/10

WHIG launches systematic media campaign with Bush administration officials appearing across all major networks in coordinated messaging offensive. Condoleezza Rice delivers “smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud” message on CNN while Cheney appears on Meet the Press and Bush makes CBS …

Dick Cheney Condoleezza Rice George W. Bush Andrew H. Card Jr. Colin Powell whig iraq-war media-manipulation powell-memo bush-administration +2 more
Read more →

Andrew Card Reveals Marketing-Based Approach to Iraq War Campaign

| Importance: 9/10

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card explicitly framed the administration’s Iraq War campaign as a marketing strategy, telling the New York Times, “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” This statement revealed the White House’s …

Andrew Card George W. Bush White House Iraq Group Elisabeth Bumiller whig marketing-democracy powell-memo-acceleration crisis-timing iraq-war +1 more
Read more →

Andrew Card Reveals Marketing-Based Approach to Democratic Crisis Exploitation

| Importance: 9/10

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told The New York Times that “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August,” openly framing the potential Iraq War as a calculated marketing campaign. This statement exposed the White House Iraq Group’s …

Andrew Card Elisabeth Bumiller Dick Cheney Condoleezza Rice Donald Rumsfeld +3 more whig marketing-democracy powell-memo-acceleration crisis-timing media-manipulation +1 more
Read more →

Network Booking Coordinators Systematically Facilitate WHIG Synchronized Propaganda Appearances

| Importance: 8/10

Television network booking coordinators across CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox News implement coordinated scheduling to facilitate White House Iraq Group’s synchronized propaganda rollout for September 8, 2002. Senior booking producers receive direct White House communications staff coordination to …

Network Booking Coordinators Karen Hughes White House Communications Staff CNN Booking Producers NBC Booking Producers +2 more network-booking-coordination whig propaganda-facilitation synchronized-messaging corporate-media-complicity +3 more
Read more →

WHIG Establishes Daily Executive Producer Coordination System

| Importance: 9/10

White House Iraq Group systematically coordinates with network news executive producers across CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox News to create direct communication channels for messaging priorities and narrative synchronization, effectively bypassing traditional journalist-source relationships.

White House Iraq Group Dick Cheney Karl Rove Condoleezza Rice Karen Hughes +2 more whig media-manipulation propaganda executive-coordination network-news +2 more
Read more →

CNN Executives Coordinate with WHIG to Facilitate September Propaganda Rollout

| Importance: 8/10

CNN executives meet with White House Iraq Group communications staff to coordinate the September 2002 propaganda campaign rollout. Network executives, including CNN President Walter Isaacson and senior producers, receive advance briefings on administration talking points and agree to provide prime …

Walter Isaacson CNN Executives White House Iraq Group Karen Hughes Wolf Blitzer +1 more corporate-media-complicity whig propaganda-coordination cnn executive-decision-making +2 more
Read more →

White House Iraq Group Formed as Systematic Propaganda Coordination Mechanism

| Importance: 9/10

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card establishes the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), chaired by Karl Rove, to coordinate a comprehensive propaganda campaign for the Iraq War. This group of senior advisers, including Condoleezza Rice, Scooter Libby, and Karen Hughes, met weekly in the Situation Room …

Andrew Card Karl Rove Condoleezza Rice Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Karen Hughes +4 more whig-crisis-implementation systematic-capture-acceleration crisis-exploitation-template institutional-coordination war-propaganda +1 more
Read more →

White House Iraq Group Formation Implements Powell Memo Crisis-Acceleration Model

| Importance: 8/10

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card established the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) in August 2002, a strategic communications task force chaired by Karl Rove to coordinate a systematic propaganda campaign for the Iraq invasion. The group, including key officials like Condoleezza Rice and Lewis …

Andrew Card Karl Rove Condoleezza Rice Lewis Libby Karen Hughes +2 more whig crisis-acceleration powell-memo-implementation propaganda-coordination iraq-war +1 more
Read more →

White House Iraq Group Established for Crisis-Driven Institutional Coordination

| Importance: 8/10

Chief of Staff Andrew Card forms White House Iraq Group (WHIG), chaired by Karl Rove, to coordinate systematic messaging strategy for Iraq War. Group includes key Powell Memo-aligned figures including communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, and policy coordination through Condoleezza …

Andrew Card Karl Rove Karen Hughes Mary Matalin Condoleezza Rice +4 more institutional-capture iraq-war powell-memo strategic-communication media-manipulation
Read more →