Hi, podcast listeners. Just popping in here before the show to, you know, deceit. You're listening,

so you already know that the fact-based media is in the crapper and public broadcasting even more so,

as the fabricators on cable and online thrive. This is a weird time to be an American, to hold so many contradictory views of our nation

and its people in our heads at the same time. But as that great American, Walt Whitman once observed,

we contain multitudes. So I want to address that version of you that still risks giving a

damn about what's going on because we need you.

Chaos now rains, but it can be reigned in with consistent effort.

We're trying over here, but it's not easy.

As the heads of NPR and PBS and countless station chiefs nationwide plead our case to Congress, I'm pleading it to you.

We're doing more with less, but soon it may be too little.

Please help keep us doing what we're doing.

On the media is a listener-supported podcast, so the best way to support this show is to become a sustaining member.

Giving 10 or 20 bucks a month, whatever you can afford,

gives us some financial security or at least predictability

that enables us to keep going.

To give, go to on the media.org slash donate.

Thank you so much. Now backorg slash donate. Thank you so much.

Now back to the show.

The news of the week is told by the most popular right-wing influencers.

Harvard, you have more money than Jesus.

El Salvador is now safer than the United States of America.

Largest foreign influence operation in American history

...