Loose lips sink ships and apparently CNN’s loose relationship with the truth could sink the Cable News Network. In a truly scathing concurring opinion published Thursday breathing new life into Project Veritas’ defamation case against the liberal news network, Judge Ed Carnes with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals called out CNN for “downplaying the importance of telling the truth in its broadcasts” and used CNN’s own employees to do it. The case involves CNN lying about what got right-wing investigative journalism organization Project Veritas kicked off of then-Twitter. CNN falsely claimed they were banned from the platform (before Elon Musk bought it) for spreading misinformation when, in reality, they were banned for posting someone’s address; in violation of Twitter’s rules. Those are two very different reasons, but as Judge Carnes pointed out from CNN’s filing, CNN calls that an “immaterial detail” of the story. In the opening paragraph of his concurring opinion, Judge Carnes seemed disgusted with CNN and ruling that the case should proceed (bold added to highlight): If you stay on the bench long enough, you see a lot of things. Still, I never thought I’d see a major news organization downplaying the importance of telling the truth in its broadcasts. But that is what CNN has done in this case. Through its lawyers CNN has urged this Court to adopt the position that under the law it is no worse for a news organization to spread or promote misinformation than it is to truthfully disclose a person’s address in a broadcast. The Judge explained that while he fully agreed with his fellow judges on the panel, he wanted to specifically confront CNN’s false interpretation of “actual malice.” “I write separately to explain why falsely reporting that Project Veritas had been suspended from a broadcast platform for spreading or promoting misinformation satisfies any reputational harm requirement of actual malice,” he said. For the next several paragraphs, Judge Carnes explained how CNN had been contorting themselves to argue in a court of law that “there is not” a difference in between the truth and their lie about why Project Veritas was kicked off of Twitter: In its district court brief in support of the motion to dismiss the defamation claim against it, CNN recounted Project Veritas’ contention that there is “sufficient difference between getting kicked off [Twitter] for posting misinformation and getting kicked off for posting prohibited information to support a defamation claim by a public figure.” Doc. 20-1 at 1–2. To which CNN curtly responded: “There is not.” Id. at 2. But there is.   In that same brief, CNN quotes from a Supreme Court opinion the statement that the law of libel “overlooks minor inaccuracies and concentrates upon substantial truth.” Id. at 13 (quoting Masson v. New Yorker Mag., Inc., 501 U.S. 496, 516 (1991)). But, of course, the “minor inaccuracy” the Court was hypothesizing about in the Masson case was not a false statement, like the one here, that a news organization had been banned from a platform for using it to spread misinformation. CNN insists that the fact Project Veritas had been banned from Twitter for disclosing truthful private information (a house number or address) instead of for spreading misinformation in its broadcasts, is merely “an immaterial detail,” or “at most, a foot fault.” Doc. 20-1 at 20. But the truth is never an immaterial detail when accusing another of misconduct, and the boundary line between truth and falsehood that CNN allegedly stepped over is more important than any line in the game of tennis. Interestingly, Judge Carnes included an interaction the panel had with CNN’s lawyer, who was asked, “If [CNN itself ] had to choose between being branded as someone who revealed high profile people’s house numbers or being branded as an organization that spread lies, which would it choose?” The lawyer apparently tried to “duck the question” before saying, “‘I will choose we don’t want to be called sources of misinformation,’ but he added ‘the difference is modest.’”  “The difference is ‘modest’ only for those who don’t value the truth as a first principle of broadcasting,” Judge Carnes declared. As he was nearing the end of his opinion, Judge Carnes used CNN’s own employees against it; citing quotes about the importance of journalists being truthful from the likes of CEOs Mark Thompson and Chris Licht, hosts like Brooke Baldwun and Kate Bolduan, and fact-checker Daniel Dale: “The world needs the truth now more than ever. It needs honest reporting. It needs journalists it knows and trusts.” CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson. “I think we can be a beacon in regaining that trust by being an organization that exemplifies the best characteristics of journalism: fearlessly speaking truth to power . . . . First and foremost, we should, and we will be advocates for the truth.” Former CNN CEO Chris Licht. “The principle is important . . . . I think as journalists it’s incumbent upon us to stand up for truth, really no matter how many millions of people do or do not believe us at any given time.” CNN Fact-Checker Daniel Dale.4   (...) “We need the facts. We are here to report the truth.” Brooke Baldwin. (...) “Without it, what are we left with?” Kate Bolduan.8 “False claims that a news organization spread or promoted misinformation strike at the heart of its reputation and necessarily damage its effectiveness. If actual malice does include a requirement for reputational harm, CNN’s on-air statements about Project Veritas meet that requirement,” Judge Carnes concluded. Between the defamation suit brought by Navy veteran Zachary Young and now this one, things are not looking good for CNN. And quite possibly there could be a chance to set a new legal precedent to hold the media accountable.

As an orange sun rises over a deeply reddened nation, the woke left isn’t out, but it most certainly is down.And while millions of Americans played a part, responsibility for the death of the woke regime rests in a small set of hands.Neither conservatism, libertarianism, nor any other -ism killed the woke vibe.Tech did.As the woke regime intended to permanently transform America and the American people by spiritually commanding and controlling tech, this fact bears close examination.If we’re going to move as fast as we need to to make America great again, that means looking, like all the other digital powers in the world must look, toward our deepest spiritual foundations. That’s still Christianity.Looking for revenge, the left will be tempted to turn on tech instead of trying to take it back over. This is a deadly mistake: Neither our tools nor those who know how to make them are Americans’ enemy.But some on the right will now be tempted to build a civil religion to the god of tech. This too is a fatal error. Our tools and tool-makers must not become worshiped idols. Finding the harmonious middle way begins with a look at just how tech beat woke.Consider one illuminating post-election post from venture capitalist Katherine Boyle. “Silicon Valley doesn’t trust experts,” she says, “because the game changes too fast to weight experience over other factors. In accelerating realignments, ‘the gold standard’ experts and OGs often don’t have an advantage.”Grasp this, and the events of the past five years snap into focus.Back when the most powerful technology was the TV, the organized left seized the commanding heights of the culture with an intellectual revolution.It was easy to do. The academic old guard, which all but worshiped the technology of old books, couldn’t beat back the postmodern swarm that proclaimed the death of the world the printing press made. And the people, who had long since stopped kneeling at the altar of the book, were now, as David Bowie sang, “hooked to the silver screen,” seeing in televisual tech proof that other peoples’ fantasies were more true than their own reality.Then digital seized the commanding heights of technology — disenchanting the cult of the book as well as the cult of the video. That sea of change didn’t just put the established experts on the back foot. Instead of simply forcing them to play catch-up, it transformed the psychological and social environment that they thought they had mastered. Suddenly, the value of intellectual expertise itself began to plummet. The awesome sweep and scope of digital returned humanity to the ultimate questions about who we are and why.Questions that demanded a return to our deepest memories about the ultimate answers and from whence they came.Even the heights of expert intellectual experience couldn’t speak to these matters with authority people could trust. Suddenly, people thirsted for expert spiritual experience — not the fun and fantastic simulation thereof that poured forth in gross excess from the likes of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Walt Disney. The civilizational game had changed.Yet the ruling left wasn’t stupid. Already at the elite level, those on the left had had the chance to react first, and their gambit to shift the ground of the legitimacy of their power from intellectual to spiritual authority unfolded swiftly. Enter “wokeness,” which rebranded intellectual authorities as spiritual ones. This grand switch-up responded to the thirst for spiritual authority unleashed by digital tech by enforcing a new vision where the smartest didn’t deserve to rule because of their mental merit but because of their purity of heart. The priestly caste of the woke church had a good four years to execute on this crash program. But instead of soaring, on election night, it crashed. And while the nationwide groundswell of support for Trump obviously played a huge role, the decisive factor was the decision of a handful of technologists led by Elon Musk to bet everything they had against the woke regime. Without them, it’s all too easy to see how Trump and his supporters wouldn’t have been able to defeat the entrenched Borg using Kamala Harris as its latest skin suit. That’s true going forward, too. The regime still has many lawfare options to derail Trump before the Inauguration, and the main obstacle to their success is Musk’s willingness to spend on flooding the zone with maximally aggressive legal defenses of the popular majority that swept Trump back to power. That’s why so many on the right — especially given how many notional conservatives have proven so wimpy and ineffectual over the past four-plus years — will be so tempted to make tech their god-emperor in all but name (and perhaps in name, too!).Yet that, as the neckbeards like to say, ain’t it, chief. An innovation-forward culture may feel like a huge acceleration today, but it’s actually a return to the moral norm of Americans being and feeling comfortable, competent, and confident taking charge of their tools and toolmaking. Long ago, Alexis de Tocqueville taught that the key to Americans ranging so freely and fruitfully across the frontier of human endeavor was the firm anchor of their hearts in humble devotion to God: the fixed, secure point that enabled us to survive and thrive in a world where all was in motion. That’s us today — except now more than ever, we need to restore that fixed point.That requires spiritual authorities Americans both recognize and can trust — not false priests of an HR-hoe goddess or of some inscrutable cyber deity.If we’re going to move as fast as we need to to make America great again, that means looking, like all the other digital powers in the world must look, toward our deepest spiritual foundations. That’s still Christianity — not for the sake of establishing an unconstitutional theocracy, but for ensuring our country keeps its head among our its achievements by doing the humble work of the heart.Game on.

Hot Take: Whites Need to Embrace a History That Might Set Them Free From Being White

We'll Help You Pack! Half of Harris Voters Want to Relocate Following Trump Win

While platforming games might not be as big as they once were, the genre is a lot more varied now and isn't just ruled by Nintendo's Mario games. Case in point: Team Asobi's recent release Astro Bot has made waves at Sony, not just because it's one of the best-reviewed games of all-time on the PS5, with the game at a "Mighty" rating on Open Critic, with 99% of critics recommending it, but also because of its sales, which Sony has confirmed has already sold over 1.5 million copies since launch.

Report: Trump Seeking to Use Military Assets to Enact His Illegals Mass Deportation Plan

Actor Tony Todd, known for his haunting portrayal of a killer in the horror film "Candyman" and roles in many other films and television shows, has died, his longtime manager confirmed. He was 69.

More than a quarter of crude oil production and nearly 17% of natural gas output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was offline in the aftermath of Hurricane Rafael, the U.S. offshore energy regulator said on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a treaty on the country's strategic partnership with North Korea that includes a mutual defense provision, according to a decree published on Saturday.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to expand the list of charges that would make a convicted offender eligible for federal execution to include child rapists, illegal immigrants who kill U.S. citizens and police.