Podcast 10 - The Invisible Toll_Casualty Lists, Press Freedom, and the War on Truth

True Journalism | "The Invisible Toll"

Hosted by Richard Schreiber & Tom Martin | May 8, 2026

Episode Description

When governments scrub the wounded from their own casualty lists, when a cabinet secretary testifies to Congress that nearly a trillion dollars in Medicaid cuts simply don't exist, and when the United States falls to 64th place in global press freedom — sandwiched between Botswana and Panama — we are no longer watching missteps. We are watching a pattern.
In this episode of True Journalism, hosts Richard Schreiber and Tom Martin pull back the curtain on the machinery of institutional deception operating at the highest levels of American government. From Pentagon casualty manipulation in the Iran war to commercial satellite imagery contradicting official damage reports, from the gutting of the Voting Rights Act to the quiet consolidation of American media under billionaire-friendly ownership, Richard and Tom deliver the week's most urgent stories with the clarity and conviction that only independent journalism can provide.
This week's conversation goes deeper than headlines. Tom shares a striking personal story — his 2008 encounter with Donald Trump at a Learning Annex event, where Trump famously counseled audiences to consider the power of negative thinking. The irony is stark: a president who once asked "what's the worst that can happen?" now presides over a war where the worst is being actively hidden from public view.
Richard and Tom also pay tribute to Ted Turner — the maverick media visionary whose creation of CNN changed the global news landscape forever — and whose civic courage stands in sharp contrast to today's billionaire-driven media consolidation. As Stephen Colbert prepares for his final broadcast on May 21st and CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi faces contract non-renewal after exposing a truth the administration didn't want told, Richard and Tom ask the question every American should be asking: When is the last time you demanded a verifiable source?
This episode is a masterclass in what journalism is supposed to be — uncomfortable, rigorous, sourced, and unapologetically committed to truth. Build your foundation on reality. Check your sources. And if you're not asking where the numbers come from, you're not consuming the news. You're consuming its absence.
Good night. And good luck.


Topics Covered

• Pentagon Iran Casualty Manipulation — 15 wounded troops quietly removed from official tallies without explanation; Washington Post satellite analysis documents 228+ damaged or destroyed structures on U.S. bases — far exceeding anything publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon
• The Fairness Doctrine & Its 1987 Repeal — How Reagan's dismantling of verifiable truth requirements on public airwaves created the conditions for today's propaganda ecosystem, and why that baseline matters more than ever
• RFK & the $911 Billion Medicaid Deception — HHS Secretary Kennedy testifies to Congress that there are no Medicaid cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; the CBO documents $911 billion in reductions eliminating coverage for 13.1 million Americans by 2035, verified by FactCheck.org
• U.S. Press Freedom Collapses to 64th Globally — Reporters Without Borders ranks America between Botswana and Panama, citing the systematic weaponization of state institutions against independent journalism
• The War Powers Act Deadline Quietly Passes — The 60-day statutory limit for congressional notification on the Iran conflict came and went with no formal briefing; Hegseth described it as pressing "pause" — Richard and Tom are not amused
• Ted Turner Tribute — Remembering CNN's founder, his courage in building round-the-clock civic journalism, his early coverage in Russia and North Korea, and why his model of truth-first reporting is desperately needed right now
• CBS 60 Minutes Under Siege — Sharyn Alfonsi's contract not renewed after her ICE detention facility exposé; the pattern of retribution journalism at a network now operating under administration-aligned leadership
• Supreme Court Guts the Voting Rights Act — Louisiana v. Kale, a 6-3 ruling forcing plaintiffs to prove discriminatory intent rather than effect, dismantling Section 2 of the landmark 1965 law
• FCC Approves Nexstar-Tegna Mega-Merger — One company now reaches 80% of U.S. TV households across 259 stations; no full commissioner vote held; eight state attorneys general filed suit to block it
• May Day Protests Dismissed as Fringe — Thousands of nationwide demonstrations involving teachers, veterans, parents, and small business owners were branded radical by administration officials and right-wing media
• Stephen Colbert's Final Broadcast & the Kimmel Pressure Campaign — The end of a satirical era as media intimidation escalates against late-night voices critical of the administration
• The Parallel Count Methodology — Named for Seymour Hersh's Vietnam-era journalism: building shadow data sets from hospital records, congressional testimony, and independent reporting to expose the gap between official narrative and ground truth — when the official number doesn't match, the official number is the anomaly

About the Hosts

Richard Schreiber

Richard Schreiber is a strategic AI consultant, journalist, autism advocate, and fiction writer based in New York City. With a background spanning investigative reporting, technology consulting, and over 25 years in legal technology and procurement, Richard brings a rare combination of real-world experience and analytical depth to every conversation. He is the founder of a growing autism advocacy foundation and the author of multiple books, including Autism Care Revolution. His journalism is guided by one principle: facts first, always.

Tom Martin

Tom Martin is a veteran television news producer with more than 20 years at some of the most respected names in broadcasting. He got his start at the CBS News Washington Bureau in 1982 — where he witnessed history firsthand, including being in the room when Nixon delivered his infamous "I am not a crook" statement. The son of a legendary newspaper editor who helped launch USA Today, Tom grew up believing journalism is a sacred public trust. He carries that belief into every story he tells.

Our Mission

True Journalism exists because facts still matter. The press is a watchdog — not a lapdog — and the American public deserves reporting that shines a light rather than throws a shadow. This is not a political show. We do not have a party. We have one principle: if it is not a verified fact, we will say so.

True Journalism airs weekly. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's Friday, May 8th, 26th. The Pentagon has been quietly scrubbing wounded troops from our own Iran casualty lists, and Washington Post satellite imagery shows the actual destruction at U.S. bases is far larger than anything the war department has acknowledged. Meanwhile, the U.S. dropped seven places to 64th in the global press freedom this week, somewhere between Botswana and Panama. And the Secretary of HHS told Congress there were no cuts to Medicaid. Meanwhile, the CBO puts the cuts at nearly a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. When the numbers themselves go missing, we're seeing things through a different ledge. I'm Richard Schreiber.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Richard. I I bet Jeff Maze wishes people would get back to watching that Melania documentary instead of having Washington Post satellites showing what's really going on. Well, we're seeing watching isn't a series of missteps. It's a pattern, one that would have triggered the fairness doctrine on every licensed broadcaster in America, had Ronald Reagan not dismantled it in 1987. That doctrine required verifiable truth as the baseline for public airways.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yes, welcome everybody. And we've talked before about the whole aspect of how the war is reported in the past. And we know from the Vietnam War through the Pentagon Papers and such that wars don't always get the uh the tacit approval or cooperation, if you will, of the federal government when it comes to reporting on things like casualties. We saw the same thing in Vietnam, overstated casualties on the Vietnamese side by by us. So I guess this is nothing new, but it seems like it's been ratcheted up a few levels in the current administration. We're at war in Iran, but what's really not being acknowledged at all is the full human cost. We don't the gap between the official numbers and the independently verified reality is fairly significant. And this is arguably some of the most significant acts of institutional deception that we see on our modern military history. And we also know that this is happening on the Israel front when the numbers of how casualties and Palestinians is not being properly reported and the level of destruction that that's happening in Gaza, and now on a second front in Lebanon, it's clear that these administrations don't really want to see what is really going on.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Exactly. Yeah, I know it's very concerning. Going back a few weeks, you know, we all remember when Pete Heggseth and Trump's press secretary were saying, what are you doing in reporting casualties as a headline story? You really should be praising the president. No, we do not live in a totalitarian regime. And I think the least we can do to our courageous military personnel is to acknowledge what's really going on, to tell the truth. Again, we still don't know whether there's even a coherent story and why we have gone to war with Iran and what's going on in straightforward and whatnot. If men and what brave men and women are being asked to give their life for our nation, the least we can do is be straightforward and tell the truth. So that's how I looked at it.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, you bring up a very good point. As my my family has good representation in the military. My dad was in the Navy, my sister was in naval reserves for 20 years. I think you're right. I think it's an affront to our military when we don't acknowledge the actual facts about their participation in war. And then we're hearing some horrible stories. I know that you mentioned just recently about improper food, improper protections, quasi-starvation conditions, I think have been reported among the military. So, yeah, the message here is like listening to a mafia don talk about how henchmen are expendable in the whole context of things. And that really is just a horrible way of looking at this.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

I guess during the first Trump administration, when that reporter from The Atlantic magazine said he heard Trump talking about losers, just no respect for the military. And so if you're a short-time graph dodger, yeah. And if it was just ineptitude, oh, they can't get their story pipes straight about the reasons for being there, and so on. Okay, we're talking about ineptitude here, which is terrible. But when you add in the debris that we have covered several of these episodes, it just the contrast is just very disturbing, I have to say.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Yeah. And you mentioned the fairness doctrine previously, that the 1987 repeal under the Reagan administration, and the Iraq embedded journalist model, where war reporting being filtered through military channels, making independent verification structurally compromised, that that's a real problem. And this year, three consecutive reports documented U.S. Central Command providing outdated casualty figures. In one instance, 15 wounded troops were quietly removed from the official tally without explanation. So again, painting a different texture than reality in terms of the war reporting.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Absolutely very disturbing.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

And even further, the as we mentioned earlier, the Washington Post satellite analysis was which was this week. So commercially available imagery uh and footage shows at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment were damaged or destroyed on U.S. bases, far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged. There has been an attempt by the administration to tamp down on the actual damage on Iran as well as potentially level up some of our activities and the damage that we've inflicted in return. Pentagon's statements call the Iranian strikes largely unsuccessful. It doesn't seem largely unsuccessful to me when that level of damage is done.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

I can't, absolutely. I can't resist throwing this in. I know that you you're very prolific on Substack there. I enjoy writing on Substack, need to get back into it a bit. But I've been thinking about an essay that I really want to write for Substack, and that is, believe it or not, my conversation with Donald Trump. This was prior to the first administration. I was in a public television. I don't know if I've told you about this, Richard, but I was in a public TV studio and they were taping a one-hour special co-produced by a fellow who was the founder of the Learning Annex, if you remember the Learning Annex. Yes, yeah, back in the 1980s. So it's some title like How You Two Can Get Rich or something like that. And so I had been to the real estate expo that they did at the Javit Center again. Thanks. Me too.

unknown 7:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Bill Zanker, the founder of the Learning Annex, and Tony Robins spoke there in Robertsky and whatnot. It's 2008 and Freenops. It's like, okay, people are waiting to hear, all these real estate investors waiting here what Donald Trump is going to talk about. He's going to talk about Paul McCartney and Freenops. Oh my God. But they did ask before the taping, they said, would anyone like to ask Mr. Trump a question? I said, I would like to ask Mr. Trump a question. And a couple of minutes later, they said, handed me a car. Said, okay, here's your question. I thought I was going to be able to ask him a question. What's going on here? And the question they wanted me to ask, I'm sure Mr. Trump told them to have somebody ask him this question, is Mr. Trump, you all, you know, so many people talk about the power of positive thinking, but you talk about the power of negative thinking. What do you mean by that? And as I hear about what's going on in the Straits of Hormuz, whether that was even factored in to the original plan, and then the discrepancy of what's really going on there. And as you just reported, the damage that's not being acknowledged. Did Mr. Trump, our president, really listen to his own advice? What's the worst that can happen here? Let's prepare for it and let's tell the truth to the public. So I was just thinking back to that conversation.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I think we went to the same conference. Yes, it was Trump and Robert Kirasaki. And I remember Tony Robbins speaking for about two hours. That was the best part of them. But yeah, in typical fashion, Trump stayed straight from the script a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

And he was very practical. And this was before possibly even before he had the idea that he was going to run for office, that he was very proud that the learning annex, Bill Zanker and company, were paying him million dollars of speech in LA, Chicago, New York, and so on. And it was in Big Draw. They filled the Jamiev center. The other people, other speakers from Big Draws, also, but he was the He was the top line after Kurosaki, yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

So but public support for military action tracks directly with perceived costs. The administration has cited its own reported casualty numbers as proof that the war is going extremely well. And we've talked about the numbers too, right? Hegzef asked for uh I forget the number in the tens of billions of dollars. And he was brought before a congressional committee, I believe, last week to talk about this and really couldn't articulate where the money, what it was really intended for, or the status of the war. And there's been some rumors, not that we're here to report them, but there's been some concerns over the stockpile being significantly depleted in terms of our rockets, our patriot, all of the different types of artillery and armory and rocket fire that we use, that we've depleted our resources, and then that could have an implications regarding China and Taiwan. Although President Trump quickly stepped in to remind people that we have some of these American-made components, apparently on foreign missile base, foreign bases scattered throughout the world, but there seemed to be some question as to the veracity of that comment. And why this really all matters, Tom, is if the public can't trust what the body count is, which is a really indelicate way of putting it, I apologize. We can't really be in, we can't really be informed enough to give our proper consent on the war. This has largely been an executive action type of war. We know Congress wasn't can wasn't even contacted or wasn't uh it wasn't pre-discussed pre-discussed with them. And we just passed the uh the 60-day limit, and that's quietly gone by by which the president does have to inform Congress as to stand on the Powers Act, and they think NexF and leaders were saying we pressed pause versus ceasefire.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

I know you put out ceasefire memes of video games, but no, this is not a video game. You can't press pause anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, so and obviously the numbers clearly state that most Americans were against the war. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the reason for the war has never really been cogently explained, or it has been explained, but not backed up with facts. There's been a lot of disagreement by many people, and especially people in the armed forces and some of the generals, to say that there was really no eminent attack or eminent threat from Iran. And even the New York Times came up with uh an article this past week where two of their two of their senior reporters actually reported on and they did an investigative piece on the internal cabinet or the tight circle that Trump apparently had around making the decision whether to go to war or not, which was himself, the vice president, Hegsef, someone from the Joint Chiefs, and of course Marco Rubio, who normally would be very hands-on and involved. That's what the Secretary of State is supposed to be. But we all know that Rubio months ago said that he has nothing to do with setting foreign policy, that's all Donald Trump. But it was interesting throughout even his own inner circle, Rubio was apparently, according to the article, was not committed one way or the other. But when you're dealing with Donald Trump, if you don't go with him in lockstep, that's actually going against him. So one could argue that Rubio was not in support of the war. Obviously, we know that Vice President Vance was not for the war, but again, showing his loyalty to Donald Trump said he would go along with the Hagseth. Apparently, he thought it was a good idea. And perhaps all this, so there was even some division within the inner circle.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

And of course, reporting that in the past, uh, when he was a senator, Rubio spoke all in favor of the War Powers Act that we do need congressional approval for some. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Absolutely. And talking with a number of people, Rubio on many levels seems to be somewhat of a voice of reason within this collective. He's obviously someone with a long whether you like him or not, he's had a long and an impressive political career. He's been an effective politician throughout his career. But he's distanced himself from a lot of the typical MAGA rhetoric at times. And we've all seen some of the interesting and curious meetings with foreign dignitaries as well as the oil industry in the past, where there's some curious exchanges back and forth. But so I don't even know where we are with the war right now, because as we said in prior programs, the message that we're getting out of Washington often conflicts with the messaging coming from Iran. And the gap has been so severe.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Stephen Colbert said, are we really expected to believe a fascistic totalitarian leader like Donald Trump? So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Or should we pay more attention to Iran? And I think there's a point, man, that we've all seen the Lego videos on on YouTube, which are pretty funny, but also are based in some kind of factual narratives. Again, from their point of view, I want to be clear about that. But you mentioned Stephen Colbert, and I know his last show is on May 21st. And on one hand, I can say, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. On the other hand, I'm not, because he's been very enthusiastically criticizing obviously the some of the movements by the government, and which is the role of comedians. Certainly, the correspondence dinner would have been very interesting and very likely heavily influenced by some of the comedians that were lined up to speak out. I know there's been a lot of thoughts on social media that it was the whole incident was staged to avoid the conference from actually taking place. And even though the president said it would be rescheduled, I think we all know that's never going to happen. But let's talk about Colbert's going off the air in two weeks. Both Melania and Trump have attempted to influence ABC to remove Jimmy Kimmel again from the air and apparently gotten a little bit more aggressive. And mind you, Jimmy Kimmel does cross the line with some of his comments. I think he's influenced by the fact that there's something personal going on between him and Trump that dates back for some time. But again, it's that's all kind of a lead into the comments that I made earlier that the US press is now ranked 64th globally by an independent organization that measures the press's effectiveness and the press's ability to really report on the news effectively and accurately and truthfully for its nation. So, yeah, we're somewhere between the Philippines and other countries, or Panama, sorry, and uh we've really moved down on that list quite a bit. Interestingly enough, we weren't that highly ranked even before this current administration. And we've talked often about the kind of steep decline that American journalism has really undertaken because of the partisan impact and the propaganda that is arguably sown by both sides. But yeah, journalism today is a microcosm of what our government has become. And that's on both sides, really. It's divisive, political, contradictory, oftentimes very uncivil. That's why we've we've sunk to 64th global. I don't think we can totally attribute that, or even partially attribute that, to the direction that we are headed, which is an authoritarian takeover of the media in this country. We've seen it with CBS. We also saw the commentary from the Ellison family, and even very even being so outspoken, as you mentioned, to say things like as soon as this deal goes through and requiring Paramount, which if we had an FCC or government agencies, we're prevented purely on antitrust. But these days are not the ways the days of the past are already talking about, oh, we're going to apply the same rule set to CNN that we've done at CBS. And we know what that means because I know you at least remind us what what's happened at CBS News to date and where it's heading even further under the new leadership that was appointed by Ellison after the hest of the Trump administration.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yes, yeah, exactly. And there's a story out just today as we're recording this, that the court CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Sharon Alphonse, who did that uh much discussed story about the prison in South America where ICE agents were sending people rounding up off the streets of our country, terrible conditions there, and so on. And apparently her contract as a correspondent expires at the end of this month, and it's been announced within the organization, it will not be renewed. She's contacted the lawyer who's represented people like Megan Kelly and Don Lemon and some others. It's just very uh confrontational. It echoes what President Trump is doing with targeting his enemies. Can I get them on their mortgage loans?

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Or get them on inappropriately organizing seashells on the beach.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

The famous seashell for Jane for James Comey, which is I know I believe that will be thrown out faster than the previous attempt to indict him was. But again, it's just posturing and intimidation that we know. And yeah, unfortunately, executing a retribution methodology on on the press, unfortunately, which is I think it's emboldened some people. You mentioned Substack with a lot of authors are writing in Substack, which is a completely open environment and community. I mean, if you read the stuff Dan Rather is putting out on a daily basis, I don't think anyone comes close to his level of scrutiny or criticism of the administration. And again, he's someone who's been reporting on these things for I don't want to show my age, Tom, but 60 years or more. I think he was there at the JFK assassination. Like 1963 in Dallas. You're right about that. He was a stringer for a local Houston television station at the time. And I think he was one of the early ones to break that JFK had passed. But I I think this and interestingly enough, whereas with other authoritarian regimes, they usually send in the secret police to close the television stations. I know Putin abolished the free press in Russia. I know China has a similar scenario. Here they're doing it through billionaire acquisition, which is certainly not illegal. One could argue it might be unethical or obviously not upholding the spirit of what true journalism is about. But as the Ellison family continues to consolidate its media empire and implement the rule set. That's pro that's pro-administration. And we talked about 60 Minutes is going to undergo a significant rehab and uh under the new CDS news director.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

That's what we hear. That's what we hear. Billionaires do some good as well. I'm not here that Jeff Bezos is going to bring back another. She's the apprentice. We should be grateful for small favors, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah. I missed out on the Met Gala that I didn't have an extra hundred thousand dollars to throw around to attend that.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Mr. and Mrs. Bezos, exactly.

unknown 22:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

The event coincided with the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2. And Meryl Streep said, I will not be, I think she says every year I'm no, I will not be attended this year. I really will not be attended. Yes. Just the contrast. Again, if it was just ineptitude in the White House, okay. That's sad, but okay. But just the contrast between Garrett greed, opulent burning of money with the sacrifice that so many people are being asked to make, even with the price of gasoline.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah. And as I mentioned earlier, a trillion dollar in cuts over 10 years to Medicaid is going to have an incredibly harmful effect on people with disabilities. I run an autism foundation in New York, inspired by my daughter. It's going to affect IMP coverage in schools. These cuts that came out of Doge, some of the cuts came out of Doge initially, just wiping out entire government agencies, as well as the grant process. Many government grants have been put on hold, defunded, tossed away. And those grants are for good causes and to help people in need. So again, back keeping this within the framework of journalism, but we're we don't really hear a lot about these things being recorded in their views unless it personally affects you, like it does myself and others being mass scrapes.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Someone, I'm sure it's not just one journalist, but someone writing about the cuts that will take place following the midterm elections in November.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

They don't have the pain to want the pain to take place so that it's noticeable it would affect the voters. Gosh, God forbid. And then obviously with the election coming up, the gerrymandering, the repealing of some of the voter protection, voter protection act stuff that we saw in in various states happening, and with the Supreme Court basically unraveling some of that as well. Yeah, it's it's these are very difficult items to report on from the journalism standpoint. And if you do, you can expect backlash or worse, or perhaps silencing, which we all want to see. Speaking of silencing, I know someone who was very influential in your life past the radio's week, and of course, being Captain's Courageous, Ted Turner.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Exactly. What an icon in journalism with the family Bill Moard Company and it's a super station and whatnot. It's been interesting. I do pay attention to a lot of CNN coverage. And not surprisingly, they've had some amazing tributes there of people who worked with him at the beginning. I talk about that cover coverage of that Iraq, the Iraq war way back in the beginning. It just sounds like he was a breath of fresh air to news coverage, saying we have a responsibility. You and I have talked about do the people running these news organizations still feel a sense of civic responsibility. Clearly, Ted Turner did and had a big vision. Got a lot of ridicule saying people don't really want 24-7. So this was long before the internet, of course. He bel he believed that people do need to know what's going on, can't be contained within the boundaries of a 30-minute evening newscast. He also put power in the hands of journalists, some of them very young at that time, Christian Aminpoor, Wolf Blitzer, and people like that. So it's just hearing people pay tribute to him in recent days, brought me back. Boy, we could use that a lot more of that right now. Have to give him credit for taking the lead back in those early days. Yeah, he was a maverick and clearly a visionary.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

And I think cable news was really, I remember the initial thrust was during the Iranian hostage crisis when Ted Koppel first started that evening news program, which was after the 11 o'clock news, and that ran for over a year. Um, and then I think ultimately it persisted, and then the war in the first Gulf War that you mentioned, CNN was actually invited by the Bush senior administration to kind of come along and follow the war objectively, and that was it. It's obviously a different kind of world, different place in the world, round-the-clock coverage. And he was right. He proved that people would did have an appetite for round the round-the-clock news.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

And it was interesting. So many aspects of his story are interesting. But uh a couple of people they interviewed said that when he was with, I think it's Gorbachev, that he brought with CNN's coverage to Russia and brought even brought it into North Korea. Because again, it's let it speak for itself. Those regimes have certainly changed a lot over the years as well. But just the idea that there was once a time when, you know, that what's the coverage really is the truth. It's not not, is it the truth? Is it the distortion? Is it total spin? It was it was amazing that there was once a time when that happened.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Yeah. So our journalist tool is something called the parallel count, where you build a shadow data set from non-government sources, hospital records, congressional testimony, independent journalists, and compare that to the actual official tally. The divergence is the story, especially today. And this was aimed for Seymour Hirsch's Vietnam methodology, where there was a lot of that same kind of disparity that we're seeing play out in the Iran War. So when the official number doesn't match the sources closest to the event, the official number is the anomaly, not the reporter's number. So that's the space that we're in now. And but we have governments that are putting in place some pretty strict rules threatening treason for disclosing information on the ground. Certainly, Israel has imposed those restrictions on its own people reporting on the war condition, and we're not that far off. All right, so we're gonna wrap up with our rapid fire news segment. The first event that happened this week to talk about Tom was RFK denying Medicaid cuts. He denies Medicaid cuts. The HHS Secretary Kennedy told Congress there are no cuts in Medicaid under the one big beautiful bill act. But the CBO estimates that the law cuts federal Medicaid by $911 billion over a decade, as I reported earlier, almost a trillion dollars, eliminating coverage to 13.1 million people by 2035. And that's through factcheck.org who verified and validated the numbers. Next, Dynamo Ardeus is the Supreme Court guts the voter rights amendment, Louisiana versus Calais, in a 6-3 rule ring. It was framed as stopping unconstitutional racial gerrymandering by the state. And it's interesting, I saw a gentleman, it was a black gentleman who responded very aggressively to this. I was in front of a congressional hearing, and I saw the YouTube clip of that, basically refuting all of the points on that. So the plaintiffs must now prove discriminatory discriminatory intent, not just a fact. So the gunning of section two of the 1965 Voters' Rights Act was undertaken by the Supreme Court. Next, the FCC approves Next Star Tegna merger. The FCC Chairman Carr called the $6.2 billion deal consolidation that strengthens local news. One company now reaches 80% of US TV households by 259 stations. No full commissioner vote was even held. Eight state attorney generals filed suit to block it. And this from NPR and public knowledge. Now it looks like that no longer matters. And then we talked about the U.S. falling to 64th in the Gulga Press Freedom rankings out of 180 nations between Botswana and Panama, citing Trump's systematic weaponization of state institutions against the press. That coming right from the organization. And then finally, May Day protests dismissed as fringe. Administrative officials and the right-wing media called the May 1st demonstrations a fringe, radical event with no broad public support. The reality is thousands of protests occurred nationwide. NPR and PBS documented participation for parents, teachers, veterans, and small business owners. Alrighty. So this week, 15 troops got scrubbed by the Pentagon, casualty risk without explanation. Acabate secretary denied $911 billion in documented costs of Medicaid to Congress. And the U.S. press corps fell to 64th in the world and marked Press Freedom Day with silence from the White House. When you turn the body count into topping points, folks, you've already lost the war that matters the most, which is the truth.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Absolutely. I totally agree with that. Legacy isn't built on body count management, it's built on what your soldiers blame they died for, as we were discussing a minute ago, and whether the people who sent them told the truth. The fairness doctrine fell in 1987, as we discussed. Talked about now the United States is 64th in press freedom this year, 2026. And if you're not demanding verifiable sources, you're not consuming the news, you're consuming its absence, which is not you don't want to steerboat with that rudder.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

That's how I look at it. Oh, for sure. Totally concur. So the invisible toll this week is not just the casualties uncounted, it's the truth that was untold. Build your foundation, folks, on reality. Check your sources, and we'll see you out there on the next wire. Great. Thank you. Thank you all. And as Edward Armurrow would say at the end of every broadcast, good night and good luck. We'll see you next week.