On October 26, National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher received the James C. Goodale First Amendment Award from Harper’s Magazine. The honor recognizes people who have demonstrated a consequential commitment to a free press and its constitutional protections. Apparently, demonstrating a commitment to those protections is easier when your own organization needs them.

Harper’s applauded Maher for defending NPR against President Donald Trump’s attempt to cut off its federal funding. NPR challenged the executive order, and in March, a federal judge ruled that the government could not use its spending power to punish speech it disliked. The judge, not NPR’s lawyer, supplied that First Amendment language.

The First Amendment is not a menu from which public figures may order only the protections that suit their politics.

I agree that the government shouldn’t punish a news organization for its opinions. But I would like to know when Katherine Maher discovered the merits of letting people express theirs.

In January 2021, after Trump was bounced from major social media platforms, Maher posted this little valentine to free expression: “Must be satisfying to deplatform fascists. Even more satisfying? Not platforming them in the first place.” She didn’t name Trump. The timing hardly required a decoder ring.

Six months later, during an Atlantic Council discussion of online misinformation, she described the First Amendment as the “number-one challenge” to governmental regulation because it provides robust protection for rights. Imagine that: The Constitution was getting in the way of government action against speech.

Maher also said those protections were important for platforms deciding what to carry. The problem is the ease with which she can celebrate keeping undesirable speakers off private platforms and then accept an award for defending speech against government interference. Different legal questions, certainly. But what a conveniently adjustable enthusiasm for expression.

CYA takes on new meaning here. Who gets to designate “misinformation”? Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? And what happens when the people appointed to decide the truth have a habit of declaring their political opponents unfit to be heard?

Sorry, but if Maher had renamed NPR “NPPR” — National Pol Pot Radio — after taking over in 2024, she might at least have spared the audience the pretense of ideological neutrality. NPR’s critics have long questioned the network’s political sympathies; she arrived with a social media archive that did nothing to reassure them.

Then Congress invited the free-speech laureate to explain herself.

At a March 2025 House hearing on public broadcasting, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted Maher with a tweet asserting that America was “addicted to white supremacy.” She acknowledged the post and explained that her thinking had “evolved” over the previous five years.

Evolved! How reassuring. Under congressional lights, old declarations become artifacts of a former self. For everyone else, an unwise social media post can remain an indelible mark of moral depravity.

Gill also asked about her January 2020 post announcing that she had taken a day off to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations.” Maher first said she didn’t think she had read the essay. Confronted with her own words, she said she couldn’t recall the post. He had the receipts. She had the amnesia.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom makes damning admission about socialist takeover on undercover camera

JP Yim/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative

It recalled, with apologies to Hillary Clinton, the pink-pantsuit “I do not recall” tour: plenty of confidence when issuing pronouncements, less when an inconvenient statement comes back for an encore.

Maher didn’t run NPR when it made some of the coverage decisions congressional Republicans criticized. She runs it now. That is reason enough to ask how the network treated Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19’s origins, and allegations involving Trump and Russia — and whether a news organization so eager to scrutinize others welcomes the same attention.

Of course, Maher can criticize Trump. She can call him names, cheer private companies that deny speakers a platform, and advocate tighter restrictions on “misinformation.” The First Amendment protects her right to make the case. It also protects the public’s right to notice the inconsistencies — and to ask why taxpayers should subsidize a network they regard as partisan.

What makes the Harper’s award so delicious is the timing. One year she is in Washington explaining the evolution of her thoughts and forgetting inconvenient tweets. The next she is at a glittering ceremony receiving a prize for constitutional principle. If that isn’t a career arc worthy of a statuette, what is?

Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009; two years later, his administration killed American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen. Apparently, once the medal is pinned on, the terms and conditions expire.

RELATED: Liberal media bends over backward to avoid ‘misgendering’ gunman who murdered kids in church

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Maher’s honor suggests an exciting new category of prizes for our part-time constitutionalists.

Why not a “Silence Is Golden Award” for a prosecutor who complains that suspects invoking the Fifth Amendment interfere with convictions — and then invokes it himself when a police officer pulls him over for drunken driving? Surely the citation would be magnificent.

Or a “Gun Violence Prevention Award” for a crusader against firearms who keeps a pistol by the bed and fires it at an intruder? An acceptance speech about the need for fewer guns would bring the house down.

Perhaps Harper’s could create a special trophy for people who find the Constitution irksome when it protects their adversaries and indispensable when it protects their friends. Given the competition, it might need an entire banquet hall.

The First Amendment is not a menu from which public figures may order only the protections that suit their politics. Maher can claim every one of those protections and good for her. But she cannot reasonably expect applause for her own freedom while escaping scrutiny for her apparent indifference to the freedom of those she dislikes.

Someone might explain that to the lovely, vivacious Katherine Maher before she accepts her next award.

​Barack obama, Donald trump, Federal funding, First amendment, Free press, Government spending, Hunter biden laptop, Katherine maher, Npr, Opinion & analysis 

They don’t even try to hide it anymore.

Late-night hacks are now full-on DNC pitchmen in the days leading up to the midterm elections. The only thing missing? Door hangers and lawn signs.

Imagine an agent handing a Hollywood star a script written by a prominent ‘conservative influencer.’ They might fire him or her on the spot.

Maybe they’ll have them by 2028?

Jimmy Kimmel threw softballs at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) this week while gushing over leftist Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico.

To quote Robert Plant, “Does anybody remember laughter?”

And then there’s Jon Stewart, destroying his legacy in the grand Howard Stern style by going full Dem pitchman on his latest “Daily Show” monologue.

“Send a message to this reckless s**tshow of an administration,” he barked on Monday, the only day of the week he now works. Stern, too, is down to a once-a-week schedule.

The old Stewart might at least have found a way to make a pro-Democrat message funny …

Parrish the thought

Wait. I thought she was merely “Jenny from the Block”?

Jennifer Lopez is throwing her weight around, according to reports tied to the upcoming Netflix film “The Last Mrs. Parrish.” Lopez and director Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”) are butting heads on the project.

Allegedly. Page Six has the skinny on the film, which the site says has tested poorly. Netflix, Lopez, and Zemeckis united long enough for share an official statement denying every aspect of that account.

That’s Hollywood these days. Another behind-the-scenes kerfuffle that could be more entertaining that the film itself …

Breaking snooze

When the Nazis rose to power in Germany, a few brave souls dared to resist. Sophie Scholl distributed anti-Nazi leaflets until the Gestapo caught her and sent her to the guillotine. Dietrich Bonhoeffer joined the resistance against Hitler and ended up on the gallows. Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in Hitler’s headquarters and was executed by firing squad.

But where are such courageous citizens now that America has been crushed beneath the size 12 Florsheim cap-toe Oxford of Der Orange Man? Who among us will risk everything to take a stand?

Kathy Griffin, that’s who. At least that’s how we imagine the thinking behind her latest unsolicited political screed, which equates voting GOP to keeping fascists in power.

“Can any of you guys not sleep because of fascism? Me too. I’m obsessed with it.”

May we recommend a glass of warm milk, Ms. Griffin? Believe us, nobody wants to deprive you of your beauty rest.

Aaron can handle the truth

In Hollywood, we’ll take any sign of self-awareness. Enter Aaron Sorkin. The far-left filmmaker’s scripts are so smart and engaging even some conservatives praise his pen. Sure, “The West Wing” was pure Democrat fantasy, but it was snappy and fun.

As a director? Well, let’s just say he’s a great screenwriter. Sorkin’s latest film, “The Social Reckoning,” came and went at the box office without leaving a mark. He wrote and directed the film, a not-so-subtle attack on both Facebook and President Donald Trump.

Now, Sorkin is questioning his directorial chops.

“There are parts of screenwriting — important parts — that can be taught and can be learned, but there are parts that can’t be. And those parts that can’t be? That’s usually what we mean when we use the word ‘talent.’ I’m very worried that the parts of directing that I’m not good at are those parts that you can’t learn.”

Hey — admitting it is half the battle …

Rom-con?

Hope Skydance asked for a receipt.

The company formerly known as Paramount Skydance just completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing the fabled film studio and its valuable franchises under the same corporate roof. DC Comics. “Harry Potter.” “The Lord of the Rings” saga.

And potentially, a heaping helping of red ink.

World of Reel reports (citing unnamed sources quoted by Page Six) that Warner Bros.’ 2026 theatrical releases are projected to lose more than $800 million. Think major duds like “Digger,” “Supergirl,” and “The Bride!” Ouch. And more ouches may be coming next year.

Upcoming titles like “Panic Carefully” and “Paris Paramount” (ironic?) arrive with massive budgets. The latter should be the most expensive rom-com ever made.

Why would any rom-com break the budget? That’s Hollywood accounting, and Paramount is learning about it the hard way …

RELATED: FALLING STARS: Hollywood woke-erati on the outs as Skydance soars

Bloomberg/Roy Rochlin/Mondadori Portfolio/NBC/Getty Images

Write wing

Imagine an agent handing a Hollywood star a script written by a prominent “conservative influencer.” They might fire him or her on the spot.

Or not?

“Confession,” coming to select theaters on Nov. 11 along with the company’s streaming site, stars Rob Lowe, Nick Nolte, James Franco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”).

The screenwriter? Ben Shapiro.

The film is set in 1938, and Lowe stars as a professor accused of harboring anti-Soviet thoughts. His former student (Franco) is tasked with breaking his spirit.

It’s no secret that stars are punished for having right-leaning views. Just ask Oscar-nominee James Woods, who hasn’t had a sizable film role in more than a decade.

“Confession” could be a dud or a winner. It almost doesn’t matter. Seeing recognizable faces sign up for a project that spoke to them, ignoring the cultural fallout that might ensue, is a positive sign for the culture.

​Hollywood, Skydance, Warner bros discovery, Entertainment, Culture, Lifestyle, Jon stewart, Jimmy kimmel, Abdul el-sayed, James talarico, Midterms, Toto recall 

Is Bigfoot finally “debunked”?

A newly enhanced version of the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film offers a much clearer look at the creature that has fueled decades of speculation — but BlazeTV host Pat Gray isn’t convinced.

“The 1967 Bigfoot footage officially got debunked,” producer Kris Cruz tells Gray and co-host Jeff Fisher, showing them a video of a clearer image of so-called Bigfoot walking through the woods.

“How does that debunk it?” Gray asks.

“Now it’s clear,” Cruz responds. “You can see that it’s an actual human.”

“He still has the fur,” Gray argues.

“If one were to believe that was Bigfoot, you still are not debunking that that’s Bigfoot,” Fisher says. “But we know that the guy already came out and said it was him and his buddies, right? It was debunked a hundred years ago.”

“I think it was, yeah,” Gray agrees. “But that is a much clearer shot of it.”

However, Fisher points out that there’s another Bigfoot sighting that needs debunking.

“What you need to do is debunk the Bigfoot in Boston on top of the building. We need that debunked,” he says.

There’s also a video of “Bigfoot” that was taken from a moving train in the desert, where he appears to hide behind brush as he realizes he’s been seen.

“I think that has been debunked,” Fisher says.

“I think that’s a guy, you know, that does it on purpose for the train rides,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Bigfoot, Conspiracy theories, Footage, Jeff fisher, Pat gray, Blazetv show 

America’s future depends on its children, but that future is only as promising as the world they inherit. What if they also inherited a piece of the company trying to take humanity to Mars? Elon Musk has floated the idea of giving every American child a share of SpaceX. If he follows through, the consequences could reach far beyond a child’s bank account.

Consider the standard portfolio traditionally passed down to an American kid. Parents hand a child a dusty piggy bank rattling with pennies barely worth the trouble of counting, a couple of savings bonds with returns about as exciting as watching paint dry, and a national debt tallying over $40 trillion. Granting a share of a high-flying rocket company looks less like standard financial planning and more like dropping a real asset into a crib and giving a young child a stake in the future.

It ties childhood financial hopes to something truly tangible: hardware soaring into the stratosphere.

SpaceX’s valuation sits at over $2 trillion, with individual private shares trading, at the time of writing, near $148. The giveaway would cost approximately $10.7 billion. For 72 million children, that‘s a potential foothold in one of the most ambitious commercial ventures in human history. Yes, for Musk, whose personal wealth fluctuates by that exact amount on a bad Tuesday, it barely registers. But for a kid in Brooklyn or Ohio, it beats another set of plastic toys made overseas and destined for the trash by Thanksgiving.

Wall Street hedge funds usually (and intentionally) keep ordinary Americans out of the biggest wealth-building opportunities, reserving them for the already well-off. Everyday citizens are usually invited to the party only after early-stage venture capitalists have had their fill, extracted every drop of private growth, and dumped the remaining husk onto public markets just in time for a crash. Directly distributing equity in a premier aerospace company to middle-class infants flips that script entirely. It turns toddlers into equity holders before investment banks can slap a 2% management fee on their futures.

Traditional financial literacy programs in public schools spend semesters teaching teens how to balance a checkbook, an obsolete skill in an age of digital payments and endless inflation. Learning how capital ownership works in the real world hits differently when it’s your name on the company share certificate in your hand. Watching SpaceX land a booster rocket on a floating drone pad in the Atlantic Ocean suddenly means more than any idea, slogan, or vibe. You start seeing technological breakthroughs personally, not as expensive magic tricks performed by detached billionaires.

Obviously, minors cannot legally hold stock directly, so they would need custodial trusts, strict transfer rules, and safeguards against desperate parents liquidating shares for flat-screen TVs. A sudden flood of 72 million minor shareholders would create an administrative nightmare that could overwhelm traditional transfer-agent systems. SpaceX would have to pioneer new digital custody arrangements just to record newborn infants’ ownership rights.

The Musk-bashing brigade will argue that stock ownership carries real downside risk because private tech ventures can lose market share or fail at launch. Rockets occasionally turn into costly fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico, taking paper gains down with them. All of this is true, but owning a piece of a company pushing technological limits gives you a lottery ticket tied to real industrial output.

RELATED: ‘Defund Musk’: Robert Reich calls for government takeover of SpaceX and Starlink — and Elon responds

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg/Getty Images

American enterprise built the modern world through heavy manufacturing and ingenious engineering. Most importantly, its insatiable appetite for risk set it apart, leaving Europe in the dust. Somewhere along the line, the national economy pivoted toward trading complex financial derivatives and charging monthly subscription fees for phone apps. Handing tens of millions of kids a stake in sophisticated rocket engines, orbital satellite internet, and planetary exploration reconnects the national psyche with the American instinct to dream and dominate. It ties childhood financial hopes to something truly tangible: hardware soaring into the stratosphere.

The government usually treats younger generations as future tax revenue destined to prop up underfunded entitlement programs until the system buckles. Musk’s proposal offers a refreshing, humane alternative to the slow economic slide conventional politics guarantees. If SpaceX successfully builds commercial infrastructure from low Earth orbit to the red plains of Mars, those individual $148 stakes could grow into meaningful college tuition funds or down payments on a home. If he fails, the kids still walk away with a front-row lesson in how American capitalism operates, warts and all.

The country spent decades telling young people to trust the slow, predictable path of traditional savings accounts while printing money at a rate that eroded their purchasing power. A share in a frontier rocket business offers no smooth ride. It offers no guaranteed returns and plenty of volatility along the way. But that dynamic mirrors the real world far better than any outdated high school textbook. In the end, the takeaway lesson might be that wealth is built by backing ambitious ideas, not by hoping a few cents of interest can outpace inflation.

​Tech, Spacex 

On October 22, the U.K. government launched a campaign called Be Ready. It’s the start of a three-year national resilience drive that asks households to prepare for up to three days of disruption (from severe weather, power cuts, cyberattacks, or something similar) by stocking up on basic supplies — including water, non-perishable food that needs no fridge or cooking, a flashlight, medicine, a power bank, a battery-powered or wind-up FM radio, and cash.

“And Britain is not alone on this. Germany is telling its people to keep 10 days. France and Ireland and the Netherlands also want 72-hour kits in every home. The Dutch are even now telling their people how much cash to keep in a drawer,” Glenn Beck says.

“The European Union has asked all 450 million of its people to do the same: Prepare,” he adds.

In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched FORTRESS America — a program to make major U.S. military bases generate their own power independent of the civilian grid, harden them against cyberattacks and sabotage, and secure domestic supply chains and reserves so they can keep operating for at least 90 days without outside support if civilian infrastructure is disrupted.

In regard to FORTRESS, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told Fox News Digital: “The next conflict will likely be fought on multiple fronts. Look at the geopolitics behind any major war. When that happens, global supply chains will break.”

Glenn also highlights other recent stories:

On September 27 at RAF Fairford in England — the base used by U.S. B-1 bombers for Iran strikes — neighbors reported masked men and white vans near the fence. Five men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, and the bombers were later pulled out.

On October 27, Britain charged two 24-year-old British men under the National Security Act in connection with the case, with one accused of assisting Iranian intelligence and the prime minister saying the plot was almost certainly directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, amid dozens of Iran-linked plots in recent months.

Last week, the U.S. military placed an Avenger air defense system on a barge in the Intracoastal Waterway outside Mar-a-Lago, which NORAD confirmed was done at the Secret Service’s request. On October 23, the director of national intelligence issued a memo warning that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target Americans, with some plots reaching advanced stages.

“None of these stories mean the sky is falling,” Glenn says.

But put them together and they spell disaster.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” the Blaze Media co-founder issues a warning he says he hasn’t given since 2007.

Glenn ties these developments to a longer-term problem in Europe. After decades of mass migration, crippling debt, energy self-sabotage, and neglected defense, Europe, he says, is in a state of “managed decline.”

“And so what do you have?” he asks. “You have Islamists organizing in the open, telling you what they’re going to do. You have Marxists and communists now no longer bothering to hide what they want or who they are; they are telling you that they are going to overthrow the West and the United States of America.”

The people who are dismissing these threats, Glenn warns, are making a grave mistake.

“When someone says they’re going to kill you, they’re going to take your family, they’re going to destroy your culture, believe them. You’re an idiot if you don’t,” he exclaims.

Glenn argues that is the real reason European countries are telling their citizens to prepare, but they’ll never admit it because “the explanation ends in a confession” no leader would ever dare make.

“No one in Brussels or London is going to give the speech that says, ‘Boy, were we wrong. We should have listened to the people.’ So instead, you get a pamphlet about bottled water,” he says.

While Glenn prays that he is wrong, he fears a “massive war is coming.”

“It may not be a tank crossing a border on a Tuesday morning like we normally think about it. … More likely, it is the kind of war already begun but enough to cause massive disruption — vans outside of air bases; synagogues firebombed; power grids, water systems probed and bombed or destroyed; neighborhoods that are in trouble, in crisis, with people on the street and the state no longer fully controlling it,” he warns.

Americans, he says, “are not immune” to this brewing catastrophe.

“I beg you, please don’t write this off. The radicals are already inside our house. They are all over the West. And that includes here,” Glenn says.

Midterm elections, which are just a few days away, may “slow it down” — but only if the nation votes wisely, he says.

“If this election goes poorly … don’t expect a gentle correction,” Glenn warns. “Expect the radicals who have already told you what they want — to abolish the Senate, abolish ICE, erase the border, to treat the gavel as permission.”

“Prepare for impact.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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The election is almost here. Win or lose, do you know what time it is yet?

At a recent Turning Point USA “Pick Up the Mic” event at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a young woman stepped to the microphone determined to be heard, whether or not anyone wanted to listen.

When the social compact breaks down, political debates cease to be merely political. Spiritual warfare manifests itself through those debates.

This was her “poem”:

It was the night before the Kirkiversary, and all through the house.
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The flags were hung proudly.
The memes all on deck, as we solemnly remembered a shot to the neck.
The podcast fell silent.
The hot takes grew wary, for tomorrow, dear friends, is the great Kirkiversary.
So I’ll see everyone at the Squirt for Kirk.
We’re hosting that also on October 10th.
I’ll see y’all there to BYOE, you know, vaccines included, s**t’s free. See y’all there.

When Christian Collins, the event’s host, asked whether she was proud of herself, she answered, “Baby, I’m thrilled.” Then she told him he was “brave for being out here,” with “no protection, no nothing, no, like, neck brace.”

She prepared a poem and read it at a place where she knew cameras would be rolling. She wanted the attention. She seemed confident there would be no consequences for her devilry. But she had no trouble invoking the consequences a man like Collins might face.

Because when the social compact breaks down, political debates cease to be merely political. Spiritual warfare manifests itself through those debates. Whatever is happening in the unseen realm is manifesting itself here.

Egypt was once the demonic hub of the world, holding God’s people hostage. Why did God choose 10 plagues to establish dominion over His enemies when He could have chosen any of an infinite number of means? To understand the character of our heavenly Father, in whose image we are made, we should ask.

Back when Moses was running point on the culture war, those plagues were specific judgments against the demonic fiefdoms of Egypt’s pantheon. God worked His way through that pantheon and left no stone unturned. The message was unmistakable: God is God, and you are not.

RELATED: Brazil’s election is a chilling warning for America

Blaze Media Illustration

So when Moses told Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” he was no mere political operative. He was a spiritual herald. So must we be in confronting the enemies in our midst.

The forces of evil that provoked that young woman’s poetry are not natural. The darkness required to perform it so proudly is sociopathic. She behaved as though she and her demons were the true gods and had declared dominion over you. People say the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Nonsense. He wants to be worshiped like the one true God, and he wants to impose his own upended “order” — on his timing and his terms.

That time is now, says the pretty young coed, as you can almost see blood dripping from her lips while she casts spells upon the land. She, too, is a spiritual herald. Right in your face.

Even the best political movement has no chance against that level of demonic conviction. No chance. Even if you deported her tomorrow, she is Legion now. She is around every corner, even teaching your kids at school. Her dark religion excels at making devoted disciples. But what about ours?

RELATED: Christians: Don’t fall for Talarico’s performative messaging

Danielle Villasana/Getty Images

Are we anywhere near the critical mass of people willing to stand up to the darkness — more willing to suffer for what they believe than to play the fool in the name of perpetual comfort and interfaith dialogue with Baal worshippers? What, Mr. Nicer Than Jesus, you didn’t know this was a fight?

That’s why you’re losing, laughs Nefarious.

If a remnant still wants to win, it will require discipleship no culture or political party can produce. The church equips the saints for the work of ministry, and that ministry goes forth into all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is the river feeding any victory worth winning — any victory that can last.

It must come from the church, where people hunger to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers, and Michigan pastors aren’t leaving the heavy preaching about the dangers of Islam to the itinerant campaign sermons of RFK Jr.

Will we be spiritual heralds? Will we remind the world of the true order of things? We already have MAGA and MAHA. Are we ready, willing, and able to Make America Christian Again?

​Turning point usa, Spiritual warfare, Midterm elections, God, Culture war, Christians, Maha, Maga, Holy spirit, Michigan, Church, Opinion & analysis