Skip to content

← Pixel Politics

· Madeline, the prosecutorFact-check: Caveats

The White House Put Journalists on an Official Enemies List

They signed an order ending censorship, then built a censorship list. Watch the hands.

They signed an order ending censorship, then built a censorship list. Watch the hands.
Video coming soon

Court's in session. Phones on silent, brains on. Today the defendant is the federal government, and the charge is a big one: building an official enemies list of journalists and posting it on the website that you pay for. I read the file so you don't have to. So let's enter it into evidence. Watch the hands, not the mouth.

Exhibit A. This is not a tweet. This is not a cable segment. This is whitehouse dot gov. The administration built a page called Media Offenders, with a section titled, and I promise I am not inventing this, Leftist Influencers. A government, the one with an army and subpoena power, made a list of citizens it does not like, and printed it on federal letterhead.

Exhibit B, the names. Brian Tyler Cohen. David Pakman. Don Lemon. Stephen Colbert. A YouTuber, a podcaster, a former anchor, and a comedian. That is the dangerous cell the most powerful office on earth decided to formally denounce. They looked at a late night comedy host and filed a threat assessment.

THE LIST

  • Brian Tyler Cohen, YouTuber
  • David Pakman, podcaster
  • Don Lemon and Stephen Colbert

Now they will tell you this is just a fact check. Cute. But a fact check is a newsroom saying you got it wrong. This is the state itself publishing a roster of private citizens to discredit. When the office that controls the F B I and the I R S keeps a list of reporters, that is not a correction. That is a target with a logo.

FACT-CHECK? OR TARGET?

  • A newsroom: 'you got it wrong'
  • The state: 'here is a roster'
  • One of these has subpoena power

And in his head, none of this is sinister. It plays like leadership. It plays like a man simply tidying up the record.

So ask the only question that ever matters. Who benefits? Not accuracy, nobody learned a true fact from a government naming its critics. The benefit is the chill. It is the quiet little voice that whispers to the next reporter, maybe do not poke this particular bear today.

WHO BENEFITS?

  • Not accuracy
  • The chilling effect
  • Anyone who wants the press afraid

And here is the part that should make you laugh until you cry. The very same administration, the exact same one, signed an executive order back in twenty twenty five. Its title, and I want you to sit down for this, was Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. Read it twice. They ended censorship so completely that they had to build a censorship list to keep track. The free speech was never the point. Free speech only ever meant the speech they liked.

And do not take it from a leftist influencer like me. FIRE, the free speech group conservatives quote when it suits them, called this page shameful, and said it is built to cow critics into silence. The A C L U warns that government retaliation against disfavored reporters puts the United States in dangerous company. When the A C L U and FIRE are nodding along together, you have built something genuinely special.

“Shameful - built to cow critics into silence.”
— FIRE, free speech group

So here is the verdict. An official enemies list of the press is not new, and it is not clever. It is the oldest move in the playbook, and every strongman who ever reached for it lost the only part of history worth winning. Brian Tyler Cohen called his spot on the list a badge of honor. He is right. And I checked the roster carefully. We did not make the cut. Yet. Give us time. Watch the hands, not the mouth. Defense rests. You do not have to. I am Madeline. Read the file.

AN ENEMIES LIST OF THE PRESS

  • The oldest move in the playbook
  • Cohen: 'a badge of honor'
  • We're not on it. Yet.

Sources