MAGA-friendly 'CBS Evening News' sees viewership plummet to alarming levels: report

Daniel Hampton
March 17, 2026 

RAW STORY

The CBS broadcasting logo is seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York on July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

"CBS Evening News" crashed back below the dreaded 4 million viewer threshold following it's MAGA-friendly makeover, a red line that previously triggered major shake-ups at the network, Variety reported Tuesday.

For the week ending March 13, the program drew just 3.83 million viewers, with a measly 468,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen data. The stark freefall comes after anchor Tony Dokoupil's start in January, when he debuted with 4.17 million viewers. Shortly thereafter, he brought in 4.6 million.

Meanwhile, the competition is lapping CBS.

ABC's "World News Tonight" commanded an average 8.48 million viewers, while NBC's "Nightly News" pulled 6.51 million. In the key demographic, both networks crushed CBS with 1.03 million and 946,000 viewers, respectively.

"Quarter to date as of March 12, 'CBS Evening News' has shed 15% of its viewership in the critical 25-to-54 demo, the audience coveted by advertisers in news programming, over the year-earlier period. In comparison, NBC’s 'NBC Nightly News' is up 8% in the demo, while ABC’s 'World News Tonight' is off 4%," the report said.

Former "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell, meanwhile, ended her tenure in 2024 with an audience of nearly 5.4 million.

New CBS News editor in chief, Bari Weiss, has faced widespread criticism from observers across the political spectrum since her installation and the network's MAGA-friendly coverage.

 CBS Streaming News Workers Launch 24-Hour Walkout for Better Contract

Workers “are fighting to protect their livelihoods during a period of uncertainty in broadcast news,” the union said.

By Chris Walker ,

Truthout

March 17, 2026

CBS Broadcast Center, building exterior and awning, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Workers within CBS News’s online streaming division began a 24-hour bicoastal walkout on Tuesday, one week after their contract with the company expired.

The workers, who provide content for CBS News 24/7, are represented by the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE). The union alleges that management’s offers to renegotiate the contract are unacceptable, featuring terms worse than those offered in the past.

Workers are seeking better wages as well as improved working conditions. When contract negotiations broke down and the contract expired on March 9, the union alerted management that a walkout would happen, delivering a strike pledge the following day.

With its parent company, Paramount Skydance, preparing to spend over $110 billion to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (with Skydance having spent more than $8 billion to buy Paramount just last year), it is unacceptable for CBS News to treat its workers poorly, the union said.

“Paramount has billions to spend acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, but still hasn’t guaranteed fair wages and basic job protections for the workers who make their streaming news operation run,” read a statement from WGAE Vice President of Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News Beth Godvik. “Our members are walking out today to show management they stand united in their demand for a fair contract — and the WGAE is with them every step of the way.”

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The newsroom has faced a recent round of layoffs since the acquisition by Skydance. More layoffs are expected, and another round could come following the proposed purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Members are fighting to protect their livelihoods during a period of uncertainty in broadcast news,” reads a press release from WGAE explaining the walkout. “Layoffs, editorial interference and political pressure have all become existential threats following the Paramount Skydance merger, and those same concerns have escalated with a possible merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. The bargaining unit is demanding fair pay, respect, and a sustainable work-life balance.”

The walkout is happening outside of the CBS News broadcast center in New York, as well as a CBS News affiliate station in San Francisco. The worker rights action is the first to occur since the Skydance buyout, and since conservative commentator Bari Weiss was named editor-in-chief of CBS News.

CBS News has faced widespread criticism since Weiss, a Trump-friendly journalist, took over. Her decision to pull a “60 Minutes” segment on the administration deporting immigrants to a super-prison in El Salvador was deemed a “political” choice by a correspondent on the program, for example.

Since Weiss’s takeover, the network has also gutted its climate team, which will likely result in a reduction of reporting on the climate crisis. And ratings have dropped dramatically since Weiss appointed right-wing journalist Tony Dokoupil to head its weeknight “CBS Evening News” program.

CBS News Streaming Workers Walk Out After Collapse of Contract Talks Under Bari Weiss

“Management refuses to agree to a new contract with essential work protections and fair wages,” said the workers’ negotiating team.


People walk by the CBS News Broadcast Center in New York City on December 23, 2025.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Mar 17, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Unionized workers with CBS News’ streaming channel began a bicoastal one-day walkout Tuesday morning after unsuccessful negotiations for a “fair and just” contract under Bari Weiss, who has faced intense criticism on a range of topics since taking over as editor-in-chief.

CBS News is part of the media behemoth Paramount Skydance, which was formed in a controversial merger last August. Two months later, the company acquired Weiss’ The Free Press, and CEO David Ellison appointed her to also lead all of CBS News, despite her lack of television experience.

The latest contract for the streaming channel, CBS News 24/7, expired last week, after which the workers delivered a strike pledge. Tuesday’s 24-hour walkout—with rallies at CBS News Broadcast Center in New York City and at KPIX-TV CBS News Bay Area in San Francisco, California—kicked off at 6:00 am Eastern time.

“CBS News 24/7 journalists are walking off the job on both coasts today because management refuses to agree to a new contract with essential work protections and fair wages,” the bargaining committee and contract action team said in a statement from Writers Guild of America East (WGAE).

“Despite multiple days of good-faith negotiations and a strike pledge signed by 95% of our members to emphasize the seriousness of our demands, management continues to offer us worse terms than in our last contracts,” the team said. “We chose this field to cover the news, but we believe this work stoppage is necessary to achieve a fair contract. We eagerly await an acceptable contract offer from Paramount—which just shelled out tens of billions of dollars to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.”

Deadline explained that “the newsroom has undergone rounds of layoffs and buyouts, and more are expected. There also are fears of further downsizing when Paramount completes its deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, given that will leave the company with two global news outlets, CBS News and CNN.”




Beth Godvik, WGAE vice president of broadcast/cable/streaming news, called out Paramount for striking a $110 billion deal with Warner Bros. Discovery while it “still hasn’t guaranteed fair wages and basic job protections for the workers who make their streaming news operation run.”

“Our members are walking out today to show management they stand united in their demand for a fair contract—and the WGAE is with them every step of the way,” said Godvik.

As The Wrap noted:
The battle puts Weiss, an opinion journalist who had no TV news experience before she became CBS News’ editor-in-chief last October, in the position of negotiating with a union under her purview for the first time. The union dispute comes as the network has already been rocked by star departures and scrutiny over its coverage.

The Free Press, the anti-woke outlet Weiss cofounded and still leads, is not unionized, while CBS News has four main bargaining units, including the Writers Guild of America-backed CBS News 24/7, which launched in 2014 and rebroadcasts CBS News shows like “60 Minutes” and “CBS Mornings” along with original shows like “The Takeout with Major Garrett.”

A CBS News spokesperson told The Guardian that “we continue to negotiate in good faith and hope to reach a fair resolution quickly.”

Meanwhile, multiple members of Congress expressed support for the work stoppage on social media.

“If Paramount can shell out billions of dollars to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, then they can pay their unionized CBS staff a fair wage,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “I stand with the CBS staff who walked out today as they fight these corporate giants for essential protections and fair contracts.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) declared that “American workers deserve fair pay and basic protections—full stop. I stand with the 60 CBS News 24/7 journalists walking off the job today in New York and San Francisco. Paramount is finalizing a $110 BILLION deal but can’t give its own workers a fair contract?”

Mega Media, MAGA Lies

Corporate media consolidation amplifies Trump regime propaganda.


In a graphic shared on his Truth Social platform on March 14, 2026, President Donald Trump brags about “reshaping the media.”
(Image via Donald Trump/Truth Social)

Brian Tierney
Mar 17, 2026

Common Dreams

“The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better!”

So said war-addicted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a Pentagon press briefing last week as he complained about news outlets—specifically CNN—not covering the death and destruction of the war on Iran with the elated positivity Hegseth feels it so clearly deserves.

It was the latest example of the Trump regime demanding not merely a pliant news media, but an entirely servile industry that functions as its propaganda arm. While this fascist worldview has been most dramatically displayed in President Donald Trump’s brazen attempts to censor and cancel late-night comedians like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert for their anti-Trump commentaries, ruling elites in Trump’s orbit have long pursued a dangerous realignment and consolidation of media power to serve their right-wing agenda.

Hegseth’s outburst directed at CNN reflects the Trump regime’s ploy to concentrate more corporate news networks under the command of David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance and son of right-wing billionaire Larry Ellison.

The growth of the Ellison father-son empire is based on refashioning the American press—or what’s left of it—into the palm of Trump’s hand.

Last year, Trump cleared the way for Paramount’s merger with Ellison’s Skydance Media after Paramount paid a $16 million lawsuit filed by Trump against Paramount’s CBS News. Now Paramount Skydance is on the verge of acquiring an even larger legacy media giant, Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

“One family, the right-wing Trump-aligned Ellisons, will soon control: TikTok, CBS, CNN, HBO, Discovery Channel, BET, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, DC Studios, Fandango, Miramax, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, PlutoTV, Showtime, TBS, The CW, TNT, Warner Bros., and more,” US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) warned. “This is oligarchy.”

David’s father, Larry, is a staunch Zionist and the sixth richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of more than $198 billion. He is also one of Trump’s closest allies. The growth of the Ellison father-son empire is based on refashioning the American press—or what’s left of it—into the palm of Trump’s hand.

But it isn’t merely one family’s broadcast news juggernaut that rules this age of media monopoly power.
Censorship and MAGA’s Mouthpiece

Over the weekend, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr issued new Orwellian threats against unnamed networks running “fake news” (i.e., reporting that lacks the government’s deliriously upbeat spin) on the Iran war. Carr suggested he would revoke or refuse to renew the broadcasting licenses of networks that don’t “correct course.” While the reactions against Carr’s threats were swift, Trump wholly endorsed the FCC edict on Sunday while deriding media organizations as “Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic.”

But outside of media mergers and acquisitions, a wider net of news outlets has been pulled closer into the Trump regime’s hold. This includes the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, with its newly stated commitment to “personal liberties and free markets” along with editorials that reveal its increasing fealty to Trump.

The New York Times, while seemingly less beholden to the Trump regime, continues to churn out a steady stream of poorly disguised Zionist propaganda and breathless coverage of Trump’s imperialist military interventions. The so-called newspaper of record is so steeped in the machinery of empire that screaming prejudice drips from its discriminate use of language, as demonstrated by its passive headlines on Israeli atrocities against Palestinians that obscure Israel’s role versus its matter-of-fact reporting on recent Iranian strikes targeting Israel.

CBS News, however, proves that the Ellison media empire buys more consistent right-wing editorial leadership and allegiance to Trump.

Bari Weiss, spawned from the journalistic cesspool of the Times to later found the hilariously named website The Free Press, has been catapulted to unearned heights of the Ellison empire. While she possesses no experience as a reporter, her hard-line Zionism and anti-woke politics made her a perfect editor in chief to lead CBS News aggressively to the right.

“The mega rich have always been willing to hire, promote, and fund people willing to unquestioningly run interference for their interests while making them feel like their near-pathological selfishness, hoarding of money and power, and total disregard for the public interest is somehow morally justifiable. CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss is simply another in a long line of feckless water carriers for the one percent,” Elizabeth Spiers wrote in The Nation last December.

“[Weiss] has shown she’s not merely stupendously unqualified—she’s ideologically opposed to the practice of good journalism,” Spiers added.

Since Trump led the US empire into its unprovoked war on Iran last month, Weiss’ CBS has featured an infinite lineup of pro-war commentators, leading CBS’s own staffers to describe the network’s war coverage as a “propaganda-palooza.” Of course, such propagandizing isn’t exclusive to Trump’s newfound love of foreign wars. This was made clear in December when Weiss—who doesn’t hide her cringeworthy fawning over Trump—abruptly pulled a “60 Minutes” story on the notorious El Salvadoran prison camp where the Trump regime has sent many deportees in its ruthless war on immigrants. Since Weiss’ takeover, there’s also been a decline in CBS coverage on climate change.
Breaking the Fascist Echo Chamber

Against this grim backdrop of the decaying “Fourth Estate” of American “democracy,” there remains the ever-exploding and unwieldy landscape of independent media and social platforms. Oligarchs and authoritarians like Trump have struggled to exert control over the endlessly diverse and expanding universe of information and narratives exponentially building itself on these platforms.

Not that they haven’t tried.

Right-wing elites have successfully pushed the Meta platforms of Facebook and Instagram as well as Google’s YouTube to censor pro-Palestinian content. Trump launched his own social platform, Truth Social, in reaction to perceived anti-conservative biases in Twitter’s algorithm—which is now run by Trump’s favorite Big Tech billionaire sociopath, Elon Musk, who renamed it “X” and has proudly moved the platform’s algorithmic biases decidedly to the right. And, of course, we cannot forget TikTok, whose new US owned operation is now controlled by an investor group led by none other than Larry Ellison.

Now, as Trump oversees the final stages of a decades-long merger of corporate power and the state, his regime expects media organizations to serve not just Wall Street but the White House as well.

As is true of most pernicious policies from the Trump regime, right-wing designs on big media did not begin with Trump. Corporate media has long been an industry rife with monopolization and abuse of anti-trust laws to amass market dominance, from the Disney-ABC merger in the mid-90s to the right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ongoing vast control over local news outlets reaching more than 40% of US households.

But alongside the Trump regime’s growing media machine, which is designed to shield it from public scrutiny, is also the inverse agenda of strengthening the regime’s ability to scrutinize the public through domestic surveillance technology. Led by Hegseth and Trump’s resident villainous creep Stephen Miller, the regime is pushing AI companies to hand over unrestricted use of their technology to spy on Americans and urging Congress to expand government surveillance powers.

If it seems that warnings about Trump’s right-wing media takeover are sensationalist or overstated, Trump himself is quite clear about it. The despot shared an infographic over the weekend illustrating how “President Trump Is Reshaping the Media,” celebrating the defunding of NPR, the departure of prominent news anchors from major networks, and mass layoffs at the Washington Post.

Corporate media consolidation has always been about serving the interests of the elite and their capitalist system of endless personal profit. Now, as Trump oversees the final stages of a decades-long merger of corporate power and the state, his regime expects media organizations to serve not just Wall Street but the White House as well.

The good news is that the public is not powerless against this slide toward state-controlled media. If viewers can pressure a corporation as powerful as Disney with the threat of canceling their subscriptions until it spurns government bullying, as in the case of Kimmel’s show, such collective action can be replicated and broadened to other forms of economic pressure by the masses. In the same way, news worker unions like The NewsGuild CWA, WGAE, and others can work to mobilize newsrooms against the fascist media coup.

The Trump regime’s right-wing media echo chamber can and must be broken through collective people power, both in the form of boycotts and by supporting independent media that answer to no politicians, no government masters, and no corporate overlords.

Trump ally might soon depart after court loss shows 'wheels are coming off': author

Robert Davis
March 17, 2026 
RAW STORY


Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Jonathan Martin (MSNBC screenshot


One of President Donald Trump's allies might soon depart the administration after a recent court loss revealed that the "wheels are coming off," according to one author.

On Monday, a federal judge in Boston overturned some of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s most controversial policies, like revising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of recommended vaccines and changing the vaccine schedule for children. Journalist Michael Wolff, who has written four books about Trump, argued in a new podcast interview that the court loss could cause Trump to think twice about keeping Kennedy around.

"I don't think anything looks good; it's not a good look," Wolff told Joanna Coles on a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head." "And that's what Trump is going to start to say. That's the thing that's going to start to go around in his head."

Wolff also argued that the court ruling against Kennedy showed the "wheels are coming off" of the second Trump administration.

"The wheels are coming off ... in so many ways," he said. "And even before the war in Iran started, politically, he was in a very complicated position ... His inability to read the room when it comes to putting his name on buildings. I mean, his own numbers are terrible. Sinking. Sinking fast. And then the war comes along. So we're going to go from a political crisis to a political catastrophe."

"That's where we are now, in the second year of the second Trump term," he added. "We're getting to the point, because it's the second term, in which he's not going to be able to recover."

Setting the Record Straight on Vaccines and Autism

Bernie Sanders

 March 18, 2026

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In the aftermath of Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy’s repeated and dangerous misinformation campaign inaccurately linking vaccines to autism, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) today called on Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to hold a hearing to set the record straight on autism research and clarify that vaccines are safe and effective and do not cause autism.

March 17, 2026

Dear Chairman Cassidy:

As you know, the scientific and medical community has been clear and unambiguous: Vaccines do not cause autism.

Since 1998, more than 40 rigorous scientific studies in seven countries involving over 5.6 million children have found no link between vaccines and autism. Major medical organizations have reached the same conclusion.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States representing over 65,000 physicians who treat kids every day, states: “There’s no link between vaccines and autism. Anyone repeating this harmful myth is misinformed or intentionally trying to mislead parents.”

The American Medical Association, the largest professional association of physicians in our country representing over 270,000 doctors, has likewise concluded that: “an abundance of evidence from decades of scientific studies shows no link between vaccines and autism.”

You have correctly said: “I’m a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine preventable diseases. What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism. Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”

I could not agree more with that assessment. Unfortunately, Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy and many others inside the Trump Administration do not. The reality is that since Secretary Kennedy has been in office, he has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that vaccines cause autism – all of which have been repeatedly rejected by scientists.

In June, Secretary Kennedy replaced the scientific experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with vaccine-skeptics, including several who have promoted the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism.

In September, the Trump Administration asserted that acetaminophen use during pregnancy causes autism – a conclusion you and the scientific community correctly challenged based on the evidence.

In November, Secretary Kennedy directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to publish false information on its website suggesting vaccines cause autism.

Later in 2025, the Food and Drug Administration removed a webpage that had previously warned consumers about unproven, and often dangerous, autism treatments.

And in January, Secretary Kennedy overhauled the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), appointing 21 new non-federal members. Several of these appointees have publicly advanced false claims linking vaccines and autism.

The IACC is charged with disseminating fact-based information to the public about autism and developing recommendations for autism research. Unfortunately, Secretary Kennedy’s newly appointed members have a history of doing the opposite by promoting and providing controversial, untested and dangerous treatments for autism and pushing discredited claims that vaccines cause autism. As a result, it has become abundantly clear that the American people can no longer trust information from the IACC about autism.

It is our responsibility to make sure that the American people understand the truth about vaccines and autism based on scientific evidence, not conspiracy theories.

Therefore, I would like to work with you to schedule a hearing on this issue as soon as possible.

Such a hearing would provide an opportunity for leading scientists, physicians, and public health experts to review the existing body of research on autism, discuss how federal agencies evaluate scientific evidence, and clarify what is known – and what is still being studied – about autism.

Importantly, it would also allow the Committee to hear from members of the autism community about their priorities for federal research, services, and support.

I look forward to working with you to make this hearing possible.

Sincerely,

Bernard Sanders
Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and the ranking member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

More ‘Beef’ With Bobby: Meat and Masculinity

In 2026, the federal government is telling us how men should be men, with devastating effects on our health and planet.

Frances Moore Lappé

Lewis D’Avigdor
Mar 17, 2026

Common Dreams


In January 2026, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the Food and Drug Administration’s new inverted food pyramid to replace the Michelle Obama’s “myplate” visualization. There is some good in the change: promoting whole foods and minimizing processed foods, as I noted in My “Beef” with Bobby. But the science ends here as RFK instead relies on bro-science. Taking his cue from the “manosphere” and MAHA wellness influencers, he emphasizes animal proteins over plant proteins. More on that in a moment.

Just one month after releasing the new food pyramid, RFK released a workout video with Kid Rock where the pair eat steaks, pump iron, and then drink raw milk in a hot tub together. It’s difficult to watch, but even more difficult to describe. Comedian Stephen Colbert called it “senior softcore that feels like dropping acid.”

RFK has long sought to prove his manliness. He has admitted to taking testosterone, while insisting, unconvincingly, that he’s not on steroids. The administration more broadly seems to have an obsessive and desperate need to demonstrate its masculine prowess. In fact, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warrior mentality may have contributed to the US attacks on Iran. It has certainly contributed to his callous dismissal of human casualties. Both meanwhile defer to President Donald Trump’s allegedly off-the charts levels of testosterone.

These food policies and performative workouts might appear unrelated. But, a closer connection exists between beef, masculinity, and the American nation, one that has, in fact, twined since the country’s earliest days. RFK’s effort to Make American Healthy Again is mere revival of a longstanding American narrative.

For all its chest-thumping certainty, this administration’s relationship to masculinity looks less like confidence than anxiety, much like the frontier myth itself.

The idea that meat is manly can be traced to the cultural founding of the nation on the actual frontier. In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the struggle to conquer the wilderness had fostered American virtues of independence, self-reliance, and democracy. Proving your manly virtue on the frontier made immigrants into American men as America became a virtuous nation. Declaring the closing of the frontier, Jackson lamented America’s ability to grow and innovate. Men would wither without the opportunity to test their mettle as the nation expanded.

Beef was central to imperial expansion on the frontier. Ranching not only justified the expropriation American Indian land, but beef products supplied to the US Army made expansion possible. By slaughtering to the brink of extinction the 50 million bison that roamed the Great Plains, they settled the “Indian question.” Historian Joshua Specht calls cattle “mobile colonizers.” Culturally, ranchers and cowboys justified the violence against American Indians in the interests of civilization. Central to this myth was the frontier man, bringing civilization to the feminized “vanishing Indian,” a curious paradox, to be sure, where Native Americans could be at once docile and violent.

Today we are left with an embarrassing historical echo. Protein as the final frontier of fitness influencers ironically returns us to the actual frontier in American history. Now we can see why RFK’s two provocations in the culture war of 2026 are related. Food has always been gendered and tied to nothing less than the ideals of the nation and what it means to be an American.

Today we see the same gendering of meat wrapped up with big business. Only un-American soy boys refuse to eat meat. Meat advertisements often demonstrate the masculinity of meat consumption by displaying oversexualized women cooking meat, implying that both women and animals are to be dominated and consumed by men.

There is of course no evidence that soy intake affects male hormones, or that meat consumption is required for elite athletic performance. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose character once said, “You hit like a vegetarian,“ has more recently called for cutting back on meat, noting that it isn’t necessary for athletes and harms the planet. James Cameron’s documentary The Game Changers challenges the myth that animal protein is needed for physical strength and elite athletic performance. Cameron follows tennis stars, Olympians, and even the ultimate fighter James Wilks to see how plant protein permeates their diets. But the myth lives on, perpetrated by RFK’s shirtless workouts and emphasis on eating meat. And because the old adage ”follow the money“ seems to be guiding light for this administration, it should come as no surprise that the meat industry is also a major donor.

Still, the science on red meat consumption and its effects on our planet and health are clear. Red meat consumption reduces life expectancy by increasing risks of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and cancer. Cattle also consume much of the world’s arable land, leading to deforestation and increased greenhouse gas emissions. While beans and legumes make it into the dietary guidelines, they are entirely absent from the pyramid.

Despite the eagerness of the administration, Kid Rock, and MAHA followers to heed RFK’s food and exercise advice, many of these same figures recoiled when Michelle Obama tried to move toward nutrient-dense fruit and vegetables in school lunches. Republicans accused her of trying to impose a “nanny-state,” and bristled at her impudent attempt to shape what Americans choose to eat. Again, gender is at work in our food policies.

Despite claiming to restore “scientific integrity” and “common sense,” RFK ignores the government’s own “Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee,” which consistently advocated plant-based sources of protein, especially beans and lentils while reducing the intake of red meat. The committee even suggested moving the “Beans, Peas, and Lentils Subgroup from the Vegetables Food Group to the Protein Foods Group.”

Cultural tropes can be hard to break, but it is time for a new generation of athletes and influencers to confront the wellness-to-fascism pipeline. Our secretary of health should not be making policy decisions on the basis of pseudoscience for the sake of winning a culture war. Nor should his leadership parrot “manosphere” talking points that openly embrace a hostility toward women and decry the feminization of Western society. This is nothing short of what one nutritionist called a “vibes-based policy disaster.” For all its chest-thumping certainty, this administration’s relationship to masculinity looks less like confidence than anxiety, much like the frontier myth itself. Still, these performances should not require the rest of us to pay with our health and our planet for their fragile egos.

This Awful Iran War Belongs to Trump—and It’s Going Horribly

The absence of any US strategy becomes clearer by the day. Trump has thrown everything at the wall in the hope that something will stick. So far, nothing has.


Steven Harper
Mar 18, 2026

Common Dreams


President Donald Trump is a victim of his own success. After a quick strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities last June and the capture of Venezuela’s president and First Lady in January, the US military, the illegality of those operations notwithstanding, made war look easy and Trump feel omnipotent.

Three weeks into a more daunting excursion into Iran, Trump is now a desperate leader.

Trump’s Latest Grudge Match

With Trump, everything is personal. A growing body of evidence suggests that a principal objective in attacking Iran was the assassination of the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For example:When the CIA learned that the Ayatollah and top Iranian officials would be meeting in a militarily accessible location, a previously planned nighttime strike was moved up to the middle of the day.
On Sunday night, March 1, shortly after reports that the US-Israeli attack had killed the Ayatollah, Trump said, “I got him before he got me.” He was referring to an alleged plot to kill Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign as retribution for the January 2020 US strike that killed Iran’s military leader Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,
The desire to downplay Trump’s desire for vengeance explains why he and his minions have offered more noble—and contradictory—justifications for the war, including:
To help the Iranian people secure their freedom (Trump);
To attack Iran because Israel was going to do it and that would result in Iran’s attack on US assets in the Middle East (Secretary of State Marco Rubio);
To attack Iran first, not because Israel was going to do it anyway, but because Trump had a gut feeling that Iran was going to attack the US (Trump). But Pentagon officials informed Congress that no intelligence supported Trump’s opinion;
To eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability (although Trump claimed to have done that with the June attack).

Mission Accomplished?

Whatever his motivations, deploying the might of the military force was the beginning and the end of Trump’s thinking. He and his advisors are now flailing in the aftermath.

Iran has divided its global adversaries by holding the world’s economy hostage. Closing the Strait of Hormuz to the US and its allies sent world markets reeling as the price of oil increased by 40 percent and the price of gasoline in the US rose by almost $1.00 per gallon. Trump is trying to sell the line that such costs in the short run will pay off in the long run, but few are buying it.

Trump’s Desperate Ploys

The absence of any US strategy becomes clearer by the day. Trump has thrown everything at the wall in the hope that something will stick. So far, nothing has.He floated a $200 million insurance guarantee for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz – but not everyone lives in Trump’s world in which everything has a price.
He suggested using US military escorts for the tankers but offered no timeline; the risks to US military personnel and equipment would be enormous.
He tried shaming oil tanker crews to “show some guts” and continue sailing through the Strait – even as tankers burst into flames when trying to do so. Maybe Trump should go first.
He pleaded with world leaders to join his “team” to reopen the Strait for shipping, saying, “Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”
He ridiculed allies refusing his requests to join a war that he started without consulting them: “We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers, great soldiers, protecting them from harm’s way, and we have done a great job. And when we want to know, ‘Do you have any mine sweepers?’ ‘Well, would rather not get involved, sir.’”
He made threats that are not-so-veiled: “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

Attacking the Messenger

In a futile effort at damage control, Trump accused media outlets of dispensing “fake news” about the growing Iran debacle. They “should be brought up on charges of TREASON,” he posted. In the same tirade, he said that he was “thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.”

Hearing and heeding his master’s voice, Carr shared another Trump post criticizing news coverage of the Iran war and issued this hollow threat: “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up... Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s lengthy criticism of Iran war coverage included a special message for CNN: “The sooner David Ellison [the son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison] takes over that network, the better.”

This much is certain: Trump will never take responsibility for any failure of his policies, including the Iran war. When his deportation operation became a scandal and one of his worst political liabilities, Kristi Noem became a casualty. If Trump’s Iran war continues to go badly, he’ll need another scapegoat. Hegseth has been living on borrowed time since the Signalgate scandal. He should have been fired long ago.

But make no mistake. Hegseth is just Trump’s useful idiot. This is and always has been Trump’s war. It began as his personal war of retribution, ignored predictable consequences for the world, and never had an endgame strategy.

And now it has gone terribly wrong.