🚨 The Media Sucks – May 12 2026

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Lead: Trump Heads to China With a War Problem

Photo credit: Channel News Asia

Donald Trump heads to China this week with a strange problem hanging over the trip: the economic war he launched is now ricocheting back across Asia. Countries throughout the region are struggling with supply chain shocks, energy instability, collapsing export demand, and growing fears that the U.S.-China standoff could spiral into something much worse.

Trump will be under pressure not just from Beijing, but from Asian trading partners that have spent years trying to survive America’s tariff fights, semiconductor restrictions, sanctions regimes, and now the economic fallout from the Iran war. Many Asian governments increasingly see Washington as a source of instability rather than stability, to put it mildly.

What makes this visit especially revealing is who is traveling with him. Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Boeing executives, BlackRock, Blackstone, Visa, Qualcomm and other corporate giants are reportedly joining the delegation to meet with Xi Jinping. These companies depend heavily on Chinese manufacturing, Chinese consumers, Chinese rare earth minerals, or Chinese capital markets. In other words, Trump may be walking into Beijing flanked by the same business class now desperate to calm the economic chaos that he helped create.

Will this motivate the President to bring an end to the war? The President on Monday said that the ceasefire is on “life support” after he rejected Iran’s latest proposals to end the war, which are very much the same conditions that they were from the get-go.

In other words: after months of economic damage, shipping chaos, soaring oil prices, and growing instability across Asia, the White House appears to be discovering that wars are much easier to start than they are to end.

Michael Jackson Accused Again. Same Media Playbook.

Photo credit: MichaelJackson.com

Seventeen years after Michael Jackson’s death, the media is once again rolling out a fresh wave of accusers right as the Michael biopic becomes a massive commercial success. Over the weekend, 60 Minutes Australia aired an hour-long special featuring the Cascio siblings, longtime Jackson defenders who now claim he abused them for years.

The timing alone raises questions. If these lawsuits succeed, the estate could face enormous financial exposure just as Jackson’s music, film projects, Broadway musical, and Cirque du Soleil productions are generating billions again.

The media is treating these allegations the same way it treated the claims against Jackson while he was alive: by presenting deeply compromised witnesses without seriously discussing their credibility issues or financial incentives.

The Cascios defended Jackson publicly for decades. Frank Cascio even wrote a 2011 memoir, My Friend Michael, insisting Jackson could never sexually abuse anyone. It wasn’t until the Leaving Neverland documentary, they say, that they remembered any abuse. Watch this segment on Redacted where I detail the major problems with that film.

Then came the bizarre “Cascio tracks” scandal, in which the family alleged to have songs that Jackson recorded in their basement. They sold them to Sony after Jackson’s death but a loyal fan noticed that the songs were fakery and sued. Sony ultimately settled the lawsuit and quietly removed the disputed tracks from circulation.

According to The New York Times, the Cascio siblings privately alleged abuse in 2020 and received roughly $16 million from the estate through a confidential settlement agreement. The payments reportedly stopped in 2025. Now the family is back in the media and back in court.

That is important because settlement agreements normally exist specifically to prevent future litigation and public accusations in exchange for compensation. The estate is now trying to force the dispute into arbitration, arguing that the Cascios already agreed to keep these claims private.

None of this proves innocence or guilt. But it absolutely raises credibility questions that the press once again seems uninterested in asking. Instead, the media appears determined to replay the exact same cycle that surrounded Jackson during his lifetime: sensational accusations first, context later, and no serious examination of the financial incentives, contradictions, reversals, and legal complexities surrounding the people making the claims.

Chips, Reimagined: No Seed Oils, Just Real Ingredients

Until the 1990s, fries and chips were cooked in tallow. Then big food cut corners with cheap seed oils—and today they’re about 20% of the average American’s calories, linked in studies to inflammation and poor metabolic health.

MASA decided to fix it. These are tortilla chips made with just three ingredients—organic nixtamalized corn, sea salt, and 100% grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils. No junk.

They’re not just “less bad”—they’re better: crunchier, tastier, sturdier (won’t snap in your guac). You feel satisfied and light—no crash, no bloat, no greasy hangover. The tallow actually makes them more satiating, so the binge-y spiral doesn’t happen.

Our current favorite flavor: MASA Original. Ready to give MASA a try? Go to MASAChips.com/REDACTEDNEWS and use code REDACTEDNEWS for 25% off your first order.

Redacted Featured Video

Did you miss our last live show? No problem, you can catch the replay here! And don’t miss this segment we did recently with researcher Jay Dyer about Operation Gladio, a covert NATO-backed network that used a ‘strategy of tension’ to control European populations after WWII. Is it still happening? Current events sure make it feel that way.

What’s Trending?

Photo credit: Getty

Chelsea Handler is trending because she was the subject of a celebrity roast and was called out for being a Zionist and Epstein acquaintance. Celebrity roasts are so unsavory. No one cares to watch this humiliation ritual where celebrities pretend to “bravely” insult one another while sitting comfortably inside the same protected social club.

NFL schedule is trending because the National Football League will release the 2026-2027 schedule and, once again, the season will begin with a Wednesday game.

The Lincoln Memorial is trending because The Cultural Landscape Foundation has sued the Trump administration to keep it from painting the Reflecting Pool blue as it is refurbished.

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