USS Abraham Lincoln Sailors Overboard, Fauci Text Scandal Cover Up, 25 Years After 9/11 | Your News Talk America
Your News Talk America
Friday, August 14, 2026 · with Jake Smith
Today's Guests
Nicholas Fondacaro, Associate Editor at Newsbusters (Media Research Center), joins Jake twice this morning, first for the Show Open media roundup and again at 9:20 for a look at how the networks have covered the Fauci text scandal.
9:00 · Show Open: Who Made the Dumbest Comment in Media This Week?
Jake opens the show with the week's worst media takes, weighing entries from three different networks against each other for the title.
- NBC's Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker pressed Sen. Jim Banks on August 9 over colleagues' harsh characterizations of Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed, framing the exchange as a fairness question for Banks to answer rather than a critique of El Sayed's own record.
- Former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta used his August 12 podcast to call Karoline Leavitt the most dishonest press secretary of the Trump era, going out of his way to rank her above predecessor Kayleigh McEnany.
- Rosie O'Donnell told the Tangle with Kyle Ridley podcast on August 11 that she left for Ireland after drawing a comparison between the current political moment and people who stayed in Nazi Germany too long.
- Which maggot from Marxist state media takes the coveted crown this week?
Guest: Nicholas Fondacaro, Associate Editor, Newsbusters (MRC) · see bio above
9:20 · How Did the Big 3 Networks and Big Tech Cover the Fauci Text Scandal?
Jake and Nicholas Fondacaro dig into new Media Research Center findings on how legacy outlets and the major news aggregators have handled Anthony Fauci's internal texts, and how the same outlets label socialist candidates in midterm coverage.
- Fondacaro argues the pattern shows a coordinated effort between health officials and Silicon Valley to shield public figures from accountability rather than prioritize transparency.
- He says Apple News, Google News, MSN and the Big 3 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) curate coverage to protect preferred narratives instead of reporting primary source disclosures like Fauci's texts.
- MRC's review of ABC, CBS and NBC's midterm coverage from August 1 through 11 found journalists accurately used the words "socialist" or "far left" only 20 percent of the time, favoring softer labels like "progressive" or "populist" instead.
- Fondacaro's take: they should just call them what they are, communists.
Guest: Nicholas Fondacaro, Associate Editor, Newsbusters (MRC) · see bio above
9:35 · Paramount Threatens to Leave California as Antitrust Fight Drags On
Robert H. Bork Jr. joins Jake to unpack David Ellison's threat to move Paramount out of California as soon as October unless the states' antitrust case against the Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery merger is resolved.
- Twelve states are seeking to block the merger, and Ellison appears to be angling for leverage in a settlement with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, according to Variety.
- Much of the daily activity on the Paramount lot is actually third party productions renting soundstages, not Paramount's own work, and most Paramount production already happens off the lot in places like Georgia and Canada because of California's high costs.
- Antitrust Education Project President Thomas Jones argued in earlier show notes that Bonta's lawsuit mainly benefits Netflix, since blocking the merger keeps Netflix's streaming dominance intact, and that a Biden appointed federal judge in the Northern District of California has already handed Bonta and other Democratic attorneys general a preliminary win.
- Bork gives his read on the emergence of the Democratic Socialists of America in this fight.
Guest: Robert H. Bork Jr., President, Antitrust Education Project, author of The New Paradox: Antitrust and the Threat of Conservative Socialism · book link · Antitrust Education Project
10:00 · It Has Been 25 Years Since 9/11
Retired NYPD Sergeant Mike Codella, author of The Evil That Walked New York, joins Jake to mark the 25th anniversary of September 11 with the story of running toward the North Tower instead of away from it.
- Codella was assigned to WTC Building 7 and changed course toward the North Tower once he realized New York was under attack, joining NYPD and FDNY first responders rushing in as civilians streamed out.
- Jake and Codella discuss how much good, including groups like Tunnel to Towers, grew out of that tragedy for nearly 3,000 innocent Americans and their families.
- Codella's book also revisits the Son of Sam case from the summer of 1977 and the disappearance of Etan Patz, both of which Jake covered early in his own broadcasting career, and Codella says he never believed the official account of what happened to Patz or who was eventually arrested.
- Codella served as an NYPD officer through the David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani years and gives his take on Mike Bloomberg's mayoralty and what has changed in the city since.
Guest: Mike Codella, retired NYPD Sergeant, author of The Evil That Walked New York: One Cop's Pursuit for the Truth Behind Son of Sam and its Connection to the Disappearance of Etan Patz
10:30 · Dire Conditions Reported Aboard USS Abraham Lincoln as Sailors Try to Jump Overboard
Ryan Morgan of the Epoch Times joins Jake on the deteriorating conditions aboard the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during its record breaking deployment, plus new US moves on drones and Cuba.
- Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from the War Department after reports that the roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the Abraham Lincoln are under severe strain from an extended deployment.
- Navy Times reported that at least two sailors had to be stopped from going overboard, and the Wall Street Journal reported one person actually went overboard in early August but was quickly rescued.
- Jake asks whether this is another Gerald R. Ford toilet crisis, as Defense Secretary Hegseth pushes back on reports of rising suicide risk, food rationing and broken toilets and laundry facilities aboard the ship as its deployment nears nine months.
- The Lincoln deployed from San Diego on November 21, 2025, and has been part of sustained combat and blockade operations against Iran since late February.
- The US has stood up a multinational attack drone task force for the Middle East, and Hegseth says military intervention in Cuba is on the table as pressure on Havana grows.
Guest: Ryan Morgan, Pentagon and Military Reporter, The Epoch Times
11:00 · Rock's Greatest Legends Climbed Toward the Top, Then Stopped at 27
Author Richard Syrett joins Jake to talk about Tales from the Rock 'n Roll Twilight Zone and the strange thread connecting rock stars who died at age 27.
- Syrett's book examines the curious circumstances around Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Brian Jones, Ron McKernan, Peter de Freitas, Amy Winehouse and Peter Ham, all of whom died at the same age.
- Jake recalls the early 1970s, when Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" and the Doors' "Love Her Madly" dominated the radio as posthumous releases.
Guest: Richard Syrett, author of Tales from the Rock and Roll Twilight Zone, regular guest host on Coast to Coast AM and host of Richard Syrett's Strange Planet · book link · book site
11:30 · Treasury Threatens Iran With Isolation "Never Seen Before"
Heritage Foundation's Steven P. Bucci joins Jake on the reported mutiny aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, Iran's suspected role in cyberattacks on Midwest water utilities, and whether economic pressure can succeed where military action has not.
- Treasury Secretary Bessent says the US will apply economic isolation on Iran unlike anything seen before, paired with a continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
- Bucci weighs whether shifting from military action to economic warfare could crush the regime, and whether the IRGC could flee into neighboring Iraq.
- Negotiations have gone quiet, and Jake and Bucci discuss whether that news blackout is actually a good sign.
- Bucci closes with his outlook on whether AI will make it easier for America's enemies to target the country through cyberattacks.
Guest: Steven P. Bucci, Visiting Fellow, Phillip N. Truluck Center for Leadership Development, The Heritage Foundation
11:50 · Salute the Troops
YNTA closes the show honoring America's service members.
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