TV News LIES

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) torched CBS News Editor-In-Chief Bari Weiss on Thursday after reports surfaced that she allegedly let Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu select his interviewer for last weekend’s “60 Minutes” segment.

Speaking with reporters outside the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez called into question Weiss’s journalistic integrity while saying she couldn’t think of any other foreign leader with this level of influence over American media.

“That CBS situation is just a violation, I think, of any journalistic standards,” Ocasio-Cortez told Drop Site News reporter Julian Andreone. “So it doesn’t surprise me that Bari Weiss is letting elected officials, who should be held accountable by journalists and the free media, instead she’s doing things the other way around and letting her friends pick their interviewer.”

More...

The United States is moving to indict Raúl Castro, the former Cuban president, two sources familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.

The possible charges are related to a 30-year-old case that involved the Cuban government shooting down two planes operated by a humanitarian group in 1996, the people familiar said. The indictment would have to be approved by a grand jury.

News that the U.S. was looking to indict Castro came hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe led a delegation to Havana on May 14 to deliver a message from President Donald Trump to Cuban officials and Raúl "Raulito" Guillermo Rodriguez Castro. Raulito is the elder Castro's grandson.

The potential indictment for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, now 94, and the charges were first reported by CBS News.

The 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue remains one of the most politically charged episodes in modern U.S.-Cuba relations – and one in which some U.S. officials are still pressing for criminal accountability three decades later.

More...

Jimmy Kimmel is making sure Stephen Colbert has the spotlight as CBS' "The Late Show" wraps.

The late-night comedian will show his respect for Colbert by not airing a new episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Thursday, May 21, the day of Colbert's final "Late Show," USA TODAY has learned.

The news was first reported by LateNighter. Kimmel told the outlet he isn't going on the air that night out of deference to Colbert. The comic is not otherwise on hiatus from "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that week, as new episodes are still scheduled for May 18 through May 20 on ABC.

Kimmel made a similar decision in 2015, deciding not to air a new episode opposite David Letterman's final "Late Show" on CBS. "I have too much respect for Dave to do anything that would distract viewers from watching his final show," Kimmel told The New York Times. "Plus, I'll probably be crying all day, which makes it hard to work."

More...

In a strongly worded filing, ABC accuses the Trump administration of trying to chill its constitutionally protected free speech and hinder open political discussion.

The point of contention: The popular show “The View,” and whether it’s subject to equal time rules.

ABC’s filing to the Federal Communications Commission, made public Friday, came in a dispute involving one ABC station in Houston, KTRK-TV. But the wording indicated the network was embarking on a broader battle with the administration.

“The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly,” said the filing on behalf of both KTRK-TV and ABC.

More...

The trajectories of Palestinian and Israeli cinema have diverged sharply since 7 October and the subsequent war in Gaza. 

While Palestinian stories have gained unprecedented global visibility, culminating in the Oscar win for No Other Land in 2025 and the nomination of The Voice of Hind Rajab this year, Israeli films have, by contrast, faced increasing barriers to circulation.

Many have been sidelined by festivals and distributors amid growing discontent that has, in some cases, taken the form of an informal boycott.

Films supported by state-backed institutions, such as the Israel Film Fund, have come under heightened scrutiny from international bodies, often wary of criticism from pro-Palestinian groups and human rights organisations.

More...

Ukraine successfully conducted its 72nd prisoner exchange on Saturday, April 11, bringing home 182 citizens from Russian captivity just ahead of the Orthodox Easter holiday. The swap resulted in the release of 175 military personnel and seven civilians, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the return of the defenders in a social media post, noting that the group includes warriors from the Armed Forces, National Guard, and Border Guard Service. “Most of them had been in captivity since 2022,” Zelensky stated. “Finally, they are home. It is a matter of principle for us to return everyone from Russian captivity.”

A major highlight of this exchange was the return of 25 officers, a group the Russian side had previously categorically refused to include in negotiations. More than half of the freed defenders were captured during the siege of Mariupol, while several National Guard members taken prisoner during the occupation of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) in the early days of the invasion were also released.

More...