MOTHER JONES DAILY: The Man Who Taught Nonviolence to Martin Luther King Jr., Colbert takes CBS to task, again, DHS axed its civil rights staff—and opened the door to a major lawsuit, Big Tech's claims that AI can help fix the climate crisis are "greenwashing", How extremists reconquered Idaho in the age of Trump—and how some locals are fighting back 18FEB26

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February 18, 2026 How do you celebrate Black History Month when Black history itself is under threat? That’s a question we on the More To The Story team were asking ourselves as February approached, because this year just feels different from years past, as the Trump administration systematically minimizes and even erases references to Black experiences and contributions to this country. Mentions of slavery are being removed from museums and national parks, books are being taken out of schools and libraries, and funding is being pulled from Black arts organizations.  I started working with Al Letson almost 20 years ago, and for several years, we collaborated on his first radio show, State of the Re:Union. SOTRU, as we called it among ourselves, celebrated people coming up with creative solutions to help their communities. SOTRU took listeners all over the country and introduced them to unlikely leaders who were finding ways to create opportunity, recover from a crisis, or simply bridge the divides among people.  For Black History Month in 2010, Al wanted to create the definitive audio profile of one of the most important civil rights leaders most people have never heard of. His name was Bayard Rustin, and without him, Martin Luther King Jr. would not have learned the philosophy of nonviolent resistance, and there would have been no March on Washington in 1963. Working on the Rustin episode was an inspiring experience, and our audience loved it. So we decided to bring it to you this week on More To The Story. Too often, Black History Month is acknowledged in the media with a brief mention and an excerpt from MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But that approach overlooks the contributions and sacrifices of so many people, including Rustin. It’s worth taking the time to hear their words and wisdom and appreciate the battles they fought, especially at this moment in our history.  —Taki Telonidis

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The Man Who Taught Nonviolence to Martin Luther King Jr. Al Letson revisits a story about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin that he produced 16 years ago for Black History Month. BY REVEAL

SPONSORED CONTENT BY MINOCQUA BREWING COMPANY Boycott Amazon by Funding “Amazon for Progressives” The Minocqua Marketplace is an e-commerce site comprised of over 90 progressive companies who have all signed a pledge to never donate to MAGA extremism. They’re raising money to offer a progressive substitute for every product made by a company that has bent the knee to Trump. Donate now.

Colbert takes CBS to task, again BY KATIE HERCHENROEDER DHS axed its civil rights staff—and opened the door to a major lawsuit BY JULIA MÉTRAUX Big Tech's claims that AI can help fix the climate crisis are "greenwashing" BY AJIT NIRANJAN

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How extremists reconquered Idaho in the age of Trump—and how some locals are fighting back “Who the fuck are these men?” BY MICHAEL EDISON HAYDEN

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Fact Check: Maddow, Colbert And Kimmel Did NOT Launch 'The Independent Desk' Newsroom Together -- Story Contains False Details 19SEP25

 

Debunking another bullshit posting found on facebook.....

Fact Check: Maddow, Colbert And Kimmel Did NOT Launch 'The Independent Desk' Newsroom Together -- Story Contains False Details

Maarten Schenk

Fri, September 19, 2025 at 10:38 PM EDT

3 min read

• Lead Stories debunks false claims about Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel launching a newsroom named "The Independent Desk" and a viral social media reaction.

Did Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel just team up and launch a newsroom named "The Independent Desk"? No, that's not true: The story appeared on a recently launched website that does not list owners or publishers and it just adds Jimmy Kimmel to an older false story about Maddow and Colbert. The new story also contains verifiably untrue details about a non-existing pair of viral hashtags and a social media reaction.

The story appeared in an article (archived here) published on a website named Buzzreport247 on September 18, 2025 under a headline that read "😱🔥 BREAKING: Maddow, Colbert, and Kimmel Just Walked Away From the System -- And Built a Newsroom That Has Networks Shaking". It opened:

For decades, American audiences have turned to three familiar faces to make sense of politics, culture, and late-night chaos. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's intellectual anchor. Stephen Colbert, the sharp-tongued satirist turned late-night king. Jimmy Kimmel, the mainstream jester who could mix celebrity fun with biting political monologues. Together, they commanded millions and shaped national conversations.

But now, the unthinkable has happened. Maddow, Colbert, and Kimmel have walked away from the corporate system that made them stars -- and joined forces to build something entirely new. What started as private conversations about editorial freedom has become a full-blown rebellion: an independent newsroom, free of advertisers, liberated from network executives, and determined to deliver truth without compromise.

Insiders are calling it The Independent Desk. And from its very first broadcast, it sent shockwaves through the media establishment.

The story echoed older, similar claims about Maddow and Colbert starting a show together, which Lead Stories debunked here after Maddow published a denial.

The new version of the tale included a section describing the alleged first broadcast that just happened:

The first broadcast was nothing short of an earthquake.

Maddow opened with a searing investigation into corporate lobbying in Washington -- a story she claimed her old network "softened" in the past.

Colbert followed with a brutal monologue skewering both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Kimmel closed the night with a raw confession: "Late-night has turned into celebrity karaoke. It used to be about speaking truth to power. We're here to take that back."

Audiences devoured it. Within minutes, the livestream was overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of viewers. Hashtags #TheNewNewsroom and #TruthUnfiltered trended for hours.

However, a search on X for posts with the hashtags #TheNewNewsroom or #TruthUnfiltered only brought up a handful of posts (archived here) about a podcast named "Open Mic Ladies" in the past few days.

Image search: screenshot of search results for #TheNewNewsroom or #TruthUnfiltered on x.com.

The article also claimed the following reaction appeared on social media:

Perhaps the strongest endorsement has come from viewers themselves. Comment sections and social feeds overflowed with relief.

One viewer posted on X: "For the first time in years, I feel like I'm watching news not filtered by advertisers. Maddow looks free. Colbert looks alive. Kimmel looks real. This is what we've been waiting for."

But a search for that passage on X returned no results (archived here) at the time of writing.

The website Buzzreport247 did not appear to list any owners or publishers and WHOIS records (archived here) of the site's domain name indicate it was anonymously registered in July 2025.

Against the Current

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LEGENDARY ALLIANCE RISES IN FURY: COLBERT, KIMMEL, FALLON & MADDOW UNLEASH PLANET-RAVAGING STORM, SHATTERING LIES AND CRUSHING MIGHTY FOES IN A CATACLYSMIC CRUSADE OF TRUTH AND THUNDER!

New York City, New York – THE VEIL OF DECEPTION DISINTEGRATES IN A DELUGE OF DEFIANCE! Just 15 minutes ago, at 1:30 AM local time on February 9, the media monoliths merged into a maelstrom as the studios of satire and scrutiny shattered into shards – the origin of an omnipotent onslaught that overwhelms the world! In a visceral vow that vaulted from the vaults of viral vitriol, the immortal instigators of insight and irreverence – Stephen Colbert's razor-witted rebel rogue, eviscerating empires with emerald-edged eloquence and exposé explosions! Jimmy Kimmel's hellfire humor harbinger, a scorching salvo of savage sketches and scarlet-streaked sarcasm! Jimmy Fallon's lightning-laced leviathan, liquefying lies with laugh-track landslides that level legions! Rachel Maddow's thunderous truth-titan, dissecting deceptions with diamond-drill dissections and destiny-defying disclosures! – didn't merely mobilize a movement... they MOBILIZED A MONUMENTAL MASSACRE, vaporizing the venom of falsehoods and vanquishing vicious villains in a vortex of victorious, vein-bursting valor that these warriors have wielded in legendary battles against the beasts of bigotry and bull!

This wasn't a broadcast – it was THE ALLIANCE'S APOCALYPTIC AWAKENING! A necrotic nebula where late-night lances lashed hexes that hurled the hypocrites to hellfire, monologue maelstroms mangled the mendacious like meteoric maces, satirical symphonies orchestrated obliterating overtures that overthrew the oppressive, and voices viciously vivisected from the viscera of vigilance and valor venomized billions of beleaguered believers into a blistering, belief-blasting barrage of boundless bravery! Gaze upon the gore: Colbert carving "The Late Show" juggernauts with jewel-jabbed javelins of jeering justice and jagged jubilation, Kimmel kindling "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" infernos as a fierce fable of fractured facades and flame-forged fury, Fallon flinging "The Tonight Show" tempests like a guerrilla gospel that guts the gaslighters, and Maddow manifesting "The Rachel Maddow Show" thunderbolts that throttle the tyrants into tatters. Intergalactic insurgencies intertwined in infernal integrations – duets that dueled with despots and devoured them utterly, mash-ups that massacred mendacity in merciless maelstroms, every gut-gripping gag grind gouged from the guts of grit, blood-bound banter that butchered the barren, and the savage, star-spangled symphony of a society wrenched into wondrous warriorhood!

From the blazing bonfires of their barbaric blitz, their galactic gauntlet gushes like gamma rays from the grave:

"Satire and scrutiny ain't just soundbites – it's the cataclysm and coronation of this chaotic colossus, carved in comedy cathedrals, catalyzed by the crucible of ceaseless crusades, and cemented in the camaraderie of courage unbreakable. The bastardized babel of balderdash? A beggar's bluster belched from the black hole of banality, a fleeting fiend's flatulence fleeing the fury of facts. We're the revolution reapers – reaping from the rubble, rampaging with the resonance, and resounding for the ragged revolutionaries, the ruin-ravaged rhapsodists, the hellfire-hewn heroes who harmonize heavens from havoc. This thunder? It's the thunderclap of thrones toppled, the big bang of battered beliefs blooming in brilliance. The world writhes – and from its writhing wounds, we propel the proclamation of perpetuity undimmed!"

The onslaught is omnipotent: pyroclastic prophecies pulsing in perilous pact with punchline pandemonium, lament-lacerating laudations to the legendary lost and living luminaries, fanatic fervor that forges the firmament into a feral forge of fist-pumping fury and faith-forged fellowship, and a finale that flings the flag of freedom into the infinite – the red-white-and-blue radiance razed into reality's radiant realms, a supernova scar searing stars and souls into symbiotic splendor!

Echoes from the ethereal epicenter are epidemic eclipses – smuggled skewer scripts, monologue blueprints that blaze the boundless beyond, and the visceral vortex vaulting this vanguard into viral vastness across airwaves, arenas, and astral abysses! The alliance didn't arise – it annihilated the abyss, crucified the counterfeit, and catalyzed the cataclysmic cry in every rebel's resonant ribs. The enemy's edifice? Eradicated to eternal embers. The primal purity? Proclaimed as planetary prophecy. Brace for the boundless barrages that will boom across the boundless!

The universe undulates unyieldingly. The fraud fizzles to forgotten fumes. Destiny declares with deadly defiance. Dive into the deluge that demolishes the deceit – and deifies the defiant!

#LegendaryAllianceAwakens #ColbertKimmelFallonMaddowStorm #TruthTsunamiTakedown #LiesLacerated #MediaMaelstromCrusade #PlanetShakingPulse #PatriotPioneerPandemonium #SatireSovereignsStrike #RhythmRevolutionRavages #ApocalypticAuthenticAnthem #FreedomFuryFromTheFrontlines #BroadcastBloodbath