SIFTING(S): The sitting president said he was glad!

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2026

Fox News disappeared what he said: On this campus, we almost never post on Sundays. For that reason, the intrepid Joe DePaolo beat us to the story. 

We'd seen it happen in real time, early Sunday morning. Over at Mediaite, DePaolo reported the sifting of information Fox News engineered. 

Indeed, DePaolo went well beyond what we ourselves had seen. Under a somewhat colorful headline, his report started like this:

Fox News Completely Ignores Trump’s Bonkers Statement on Mueller’s Death On Air

President Donald Trump’s shocking post celebrating the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller has not received a single on-air mention over at Fox News.

According to a search using the media monitoring service Snapstream, Fox News has not mentioned the president’s statement a single time on its air since Mueller’s passing on Saturday.

“Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!” 

That jaw-dropping postscript on the life of a decorated public servant has received nary a mention on air at Fox News. The network’s chief political analyst Brit Hume did denounce Trump’s comments in a post on X. And other network contributors have—in social media posts—similarly condemned Trump’s remarks. The network also did cover Trump’s remarks on its website, and in an X post on the Fox News account, But that criticism has not been seen by Fox News viewers. And viewers haven’t heard about Trump’s words at all.

The sitting president had made a "jam-dropping" statement about Mueller's death. But according to DiPaolo's research, viewers of the Fox News Channel hadn't heard about that at all!

At this point, the story gets even betteror you might say it gets even worse.

As DiPaolo continued, he reported what viewers had heard about Mueller's death on Sunday morning's Fox & Friends Weekend broadcast.  On this campus, we ourselves had seen that carefully sifted report. 

The report was delivered by Charlie Hurt at 6:23 a.m. This is what we saw him say:

HURT (3/22/26): Former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller, who led the 2016 election interference probe tied to Russia, has died. His family releasing a statement, writing, quote, "With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away. His family asks that their privacy be respected." 

Former President George W. Bush, who nominated Mueller, says he is deeply saddened by the loss and praised him for his service to the country, writing, quote, ‘Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11. He led it effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil."

While a cause of death has not been released, Mueller battled Parkinson's for several years, He was 81 years old. 

That was Hurt's full statement. The three friends engaged in no further discussion of Mueller's death. 

Indeed, searching the Internet Archive records, we find no sign that Mueller was ever mentioned again during Sunday's four-hour broadcast. And yes, we ourselves were struck by the apparent "sifting" Fox producers had performed in fashioning the text which Hurt faithfully read.

As you may know, Fox & Friends Weekend is co-hosted by a trio of friends. They're very friendly with each otherand they're especially friendly with respect to the sitting president. 

Indeed, almost everyone at the Fox News Channel is very favorably disposed toward the sitting president (as is their perfect right). This helps explain the sifting of information seen in Hurt's brief report. 

In his statement, Hurt reported that Mueller had diedand he reported what one former president had said. But as DiPaolo noted, Hurt didn't report what the current sitting presidentthe person who's actually president nowhad said! 

Even by Sunday morning, that "bonkers" statement by the sitting president had become the subject of a great deal of critical comment. 

Indeed, it was just as DiPaolo reported. Early Saturday afternoon, in one of his endless Truth Social posts, this is what he had said:

Truth Details 

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump 

Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP 

By most peoples' reckoning, there he had gone once again! Unless you were watching Fox & Friends Weekend, where the unusual statement was sifted outwent completely unmentioned in Charlie Hurt's brief report.

Viewers were told what former president George W. Bush had said, but those same viewers weren't told what President Trump had said. His highly unusual statement was lovingly disappearedwas sifted, was edited out.

We're heavily working the term "sifted" today. We'll be using that term all this week. It refers to the highly selective way citizens are exposed to information and opinion under current arrangements, in which Silo Red and Silo Blue are the sources of large volumes of our journalismof our public discourse.

Some news reports come from Silo Blue. Some come from Silo Redand very rarely shall the twain meet. In this instance, the Fox News Channel had chosen to disappear the latest thing the sitting president had said.

In fairness, selective "sifting" of information works in various ways. The New York Times has also been inclined to disappear the sitting president's strangest remarks, though the paper didn't do so in this particular case.

We'll document that this afternoon. For now, we'll stop with this:

The president's "bonkers" comment about Robert Mueller was soon joined by another Truth Social post. In our view, this later post by the sitting president was even more "jaw-dropping:" 

Truth Details 

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump 

Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

For the ten millionth time, there he had gone again! The Democrat [sic] Party is this nation's greatest enemy, the sitting American president remarkably said.

(For Mediaite's report on that astonishing comment, you can just click here.)

Almost surely, that astonishing comment by the president won't be mentioned on Fox News. As of now, the astonishing comment hasn't been reported by the New York Times, according to the Times search engine.

Discussion of the president's possible medical condition is scrupulously avoided by the Times. We live in a very dangerous timea time when the sifting of information of information is general over this failing nation.

The sifting is general over the nation. As we'll note, sifted news emerges from Silo Blue as well as from Silo Red.

Coming soon, perhaps tomorrow: What Gutfeld, Compagno said

34 comments:

  1. TACO

    "U.S. President Donald Trump has extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying the U.S. will hold off on power plant strikes for five days. Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social site hours ahead of a deadline. He added that the U.S. and Iran have had “very good and productive conversations” that could yield “a complete and total resolution” in the war."

    "Two Iranian semiofficial news agencies close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed that there had been no negotiations — direct or indirect — with Washington as described by Trump. The Fars and Tasnim news agencies instead portrayed the American president as backing down due to Iran’s threats."

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    1. It’s pitiful that we consider the murderous religious fanatics in Iran more credible than the murderous President of the US.

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    2. Orange Mussolini lies to my face every time I see him address the country.

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    3. Doesn't a remora cling to a bigger fish? You are hardly a big fish around here, given that you say nothing worth reading. So, it appears you are the remora, waiting to shit on what others say here.

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    4. Like man how is the totally decimated Iranian military dictating the terms of their surrender man???

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    5. And also too man, how many insider stock options were placed before the fat old yam started todays yammering?

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    6. 10:56 - You’re going with “I know you are, but what am I?” Really?

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    7. 10:59 - Yes! Playing the markets now is a fool’s game if you’re not an insider.

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    8. Plus — “fat old yam” is classic!

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    9. Fuck off troll.

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  2. It is fine if Somerby wants to describe the way Fox omits stories unfavorable to the president and a right wing perspective, but when he generalizes that behavior to the left, without any examples, he is being a propagandist himself.

    We on the left heard Obama's statement about Mueller's death, but we also heard what George W. Bush said and what Trump said. We even heard that Biden made no immediate statement. How is that the same as Fox's distorted coverage?

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  3. Saying something ugly on the death of a political opponent is not a symptom of mental illness. It is baiting the left, owning the libs. The right doesn't care when Trump does this kind of thing -- they consider it speaking for them.

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    1. Only the right says ugly things at a political opponents death? Are you serious? An enormous number of leftists, IIRC in the hundreds of thousands, publicly said horrible things against Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated.

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    2. fuck you, dickface, you compare anons with the president of the US? you are so depraved

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    3. DiC - Name a prominent Dem - a Senator, say - who said something derogatory at Kirk’s death.

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    4. DG, stop pretending you aren't a troll and just go away.

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  4. Should a man remain president and be allowed to make big decisions if he can't speak English good? Trump ranted about the SAVE America Act, ending by with the phrase "...and No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our precious children."

    The word is mutilation. There is no such word as mutilization. He makes a joke of himself every time he speaks (and especially when he writes).

    One wonders what he wants to see happen to our semi-precious and non-precious children.

    But we have Somerby today, bravely saving the country from Fox News while turning a blind eye to anything else going on. How long does it take the average normal person to recognize what Fox is and change the channel? About 10 seconds. Shorter, if Gutfeld is on screen. Even without Somerby's warnings.

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    1. Agreed. Somerby's target blog audience is center left. Who among us watches Fox? We only take quick peeks to see what the fucking weirdos are up to.

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    2. And that’s why we miss big issues like Biden’s decline and the immigration surge. We Blues were going Trump, Trump, Trump Jail! while Red media were hyping the issues that would decide the last election.

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    3. No one missed Biden's so-called decline. What a liar you are! Fucking troll.

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    4. I was here in real time, well before the debate, when Somerby was warning that Biden would not be able to wage an effective election campaign, and the usual suspects here were excoriating him as a paid Russian asset promoting Red propaganda.

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    5. I, too, read Somerby repeating the NY Times Right-wing rat-fucking claims about Biden.
      Somerby even doubled-down after the Presidential debate by omitting Trump's claims that the nation has an "epidemic of post-birth abortions".
      On the other hand, I won't accuse Somerby of being a Right-winger, until he uses the word "nigger" in public.

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  5. "WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Confirming the suspicions of many in the international community, on Monday Donald J. Trump revealed that intelligence played “no role” in his decision to go to war with Iran.

    “People keep asking me about intelligence,” he told reporters on Air Force One. “I made this call with no intelligence whatsoever.”

    “Quite frankly, every decision I’ve ever made in my life I’ve made without intelligence,” he boasted. “Intelligence is for losers.”

    Trump added that “I don’t trust people who have intelligence, which is why I love Pete."

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  6. Trump wasn't the only one gloating over Mueller's death. There were others on the right doing it too, Tiedrich says:

    "here’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to explain that it was totes acceptable for Dear Leader to gloat over the passing of Robert Mueller, because Mueller was very very very very very very very mean to him.

    Meet the Press host Kristen Welker: “do you think it’s appropriate for the president of the United States to celebrate the death of an American citizen, someone who’s a Bronze Star, Purple Heart recipient who served in Vietnam?”

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “neither one of us can understand what has been done to the president and to his family.”

    Welker: “is it appropriate for the president to celebrate the death of any American citizen?”

    Bessent: “I think given what has been done to President Trump and his family, it is impossible for either of us to understand what he’s been through.”

    Welkler: “so you don’t think there’s anything wrong with a post saying, ‘good. Robert Mueller's dead’?”

    Bessent: “we should all have a little empathy for what has been done to him and his family.”

    I’m sorry, but excuse me?

    ...wait, we’re supposed to feed bad for the criming criminal who got caught criming and then literally got away with it?

    oh, boo fucking hoo."

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    1. I hope Bessent spends that loot he's collecting well.

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  7. Courtesy of an X user named Jonathan Norris:

    "the biggest difference between the Iran war and the Vietnam war is that Trump knew how to get himself out of the Vietnam war."

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    1. Thanks, put a smile on my face! Then made me sick to my stomach

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    2. Hector - That joke would have funnier a day ago before Trump announced the very promising negotiations. The "Iran War quagmire" may turn out to be yet another thing that never happened, that Trump never did, but which Trump was blamed for.

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    3. And also British PM Keir Starmer is no Winston Churchill, says our batshit insane Orange Mussolini.

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    4. Too late to pretend Trump never bombed Iran, David, those girls are dead.

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  8. "now let’s turn the Stupid Dial all the way to eleven. do you know where Donny got the fuckbrained idea to put ICE goons in airports? from watching Fox News — because of course he did." Tiedrich

    Somerby could remind us all that Trump is the only President to get his policy ideas from watching a partisan TV show. That is the danger of Fox News, not what it omits about its own president's dementia (not mental illness, Alzheimer's disease, a possibility Somerby never ever mentions, although some on the left are suggesting it is advanced neurosyphillis afflicting Trump).

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    1. Perhaps 10:54 has never flown. TSA agents don't check people's citizenship. All they do is look at your ID, look at your face, and OK the boarding pass.

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