“Joe Rogan’s comparison of U.S. immigration raids to Gestapo operations, made during a podcast episode earlier this week, has sparked speculation about whether the wildly popular podcaster, who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, has fully soured on Trump’s presidency – and what that might say of the millions of mainly young men who listen to Rogan’s show,” The Guardian reports.

The Atlantic is suing Google “alleging the tech giant’s model of serving ads to publishers has become a monopoly and that it has falsely claimed its ad serving practices would serve the Atlantic’s interest — only to enrich itself instead,” The Wrap reports.

“FBI agents searched the home of a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday, as part of what officials said was an investigation into the possible sharing of government secrets,” the New York Times reports.

“It is unclear what reporting or what sensitive information prompted the inquiry and search. But it is exceedingly rare, even in investigations of classified disclosures, for federal agents to search a reporter’s home.”

SiriusXM has rehired Chris Cuomo to host a live weekday program, nearly five years after he was fired from CNN, the Hollywood Reporter reports.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told off a producer for Jesse Watters who invited the congresswoman to go on his Fox News show. 

Said Ocasio-Cortez: “He has sexualized and harassed me on his show. He has sexually harassed me on his show. He has engaged in horrific, sexually exploitative rhetoric.”

Shortly after, she called the host “a pervert.”

Former FBI deputy director Dan Boningo spent much of the day feuding with former Rep. Matt Gaetz, calling the OAN host a “suckling little doggie” and a “piece of shit” with a “phony face.” 

Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night after his winter break and he used his first monologue of the year to taunt President Trump about his low ratings, Variety reports.

Said Kimmel: “After boasting about what a great host he is and how much better he is than I am and how huge his ratings would be, Trump hosted the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast of all time.”

He added: “You know, as I recall, he said he’d step down if this happened. He said, ‘If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel, then I don’t think I should be president.’ Hey, a deal is a deal. Back to Mar-a-Lago you go.”

“I turned on Fox News yesterday, and I’m sorry, but it was like watching Russian propaganda. There was nothing skeptical. It was all rah-rah cheerleading, yes, let’s go.”

— Megyn Kelly, on her radio show.

Status: “Despite the knee-jerk reaction by many in the MAGA media ecosystem to support Trump without reservation, the news served as a litmus test, forcing some of the movement’s biggest boosters to question what Trump’s promise of ‘America First’ foreign policy actually looks like in practice.”

“The New York Times and Washington Post learned of a secret U.S. raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin Friday night — but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops,” Semafor reports.

“The decisions in the New York and Washington newsrooms to maintain official secrecy is in keeping with longstanding American journalistic traditions — even at a moment of unprecedented mutual hostility between the American president and a legacy media that continues to dominate national security reporting. And it offers a rare glimpse at a thread of contact and even cooperation over some of the highest-stakes American national security issues.”

Politico: “A landmark deal between California and tech titan Google to support local newspapers struggling to stay afloat amid incursions by online competitors and aggressive hedge funds is running into one brick wall after another.”

“The agreement is tangled in budget cuts, bureaucratic infighting and unresolved questions about who controls the money, leaving journalists empty-handed and casting doubt on whether the lofty experiment will ever live up to its promise… Not a single newsroom has seen a dollar of funding, and there’s no definitive timeline spelling out when they will.”

John Avlon: “This was the year when public broadcasting was gutted and hyper-partisans prospered, when the First Amendment was exhaustively praised and opportunistically abandoned. It was the year when media capture came to America.”

“Before 2025, ‘media capture’ was a term used exclusively overseas, describing the compromise of a free press to curry favor with the regime in power. Sometimes this happened through threats and intimidation, greased by partisan group think. Other times, the cudgel was money: wealthy administration allies would buy independent news organizations and neuter them to fall in line with the state-backed version of facts.”

“Hungary is often cited as a prime example of media capture — and so it seemed notable that Hungary’s elected autocrat Viktor Orban was repeatedly praised by Donald Trump and Republicans during the 2024 election. It was a clear sign of intent.”

President Trump, on Truth Social:

“If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!”

“CBS News’ new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for the broadcaster as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures,“ Axios reports.

“The masthead is meant to drive a more streamlined hierarchy and set of processes across show and news gathering teams that are intended to prevent disparate editorial procedures and standards.”

President Trump called the New York Times “a serious threat to the national security of our nation” in a late night post.

Wrote Trump: “The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation. Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”

“Archivists have saved and uploaded copies of the 60 Minutes episode new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ordered be shelved as a torrent and multiple file sharing sites after an international distributor aired the episode,” 404 Media reports.

“The moves show how difficult it may be for CBS to stop the episode, which focused on the experience of Venezuelans deported to El Salvadorian mega prison CECOT, from spreading across the internet.”