Unmasked Substack

There’s no doubt that the media played an inordinate role in reporting - and supporting - the unconstitutional COVID-19 mandates and restrictions to not only begin, but to expand, and subsequently continue well beyond any reasonable justification. Whatever their motivation, be it ideological, personal panic, or a desire to capitalize on widespread fear, you will recall that the major media outlets almost immediately abandoned any pretense of journalism.

There are few things in this world more sanctimonious and hypocritical than left-wing sportswriters getting on their faux moral high horse. College professors spend less time lecturing than a typical sportswriter creating fake controversies to criticize. Fake controversies that always tilt against one specific viewpoint and ideology that they are too blinded to understand.

The primary election for Los Angeles mayor is currently underway, with weeks remaining to see the race certified. It’s been a high profile race, thanks in large part to the entry of former reality television star Spencer Pratt. Pratt, whose home burned down in the Palisades Fire, has spent his campaign demonstrating the failures of current city leadership, including incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.

I think we all can agree that “the media” has largely failed the general public over the years, increasingly so in the past decade. The mistakes have accumulated, and if anything, they’ve intensified. Whether it’s the wildly inaccurate framing or reporting around Donald Trump, such as the Russia collusion hoax or the “very fine people” hoax. Or when Catholic school children were mistakenly called racist. All the way to Hunter Biden’s laptop and of course, we mustn’t forget the COVID-19 pandemic.

Get 27% off forever As we near June 2026, it’s disturbingly apparent from social media and the real world that there are still a ridiculous number of people who are religiously masking in public. One such post on X received an inordinate amount of attention as one man bragged about masking at the British Museum in London to keep himself healthy and avoid losing points of IQ. Seriously. As if someone wearing a mask halfway through 2026 has IQ points left to lose.

Get 27% off forever Much of this week on X has been consumed by discourse created by “Mr. Wonderful,” Kevin O’Leary. O’Leary told anyone who will listen what he believes is the problem with younger generations. What he thinks the explanation for their inability to buy homes comes down to. Evidently they simply spend too much money on sandwiches and coffee. Here’s why that’s wrong, and why it says more about O’Leary and his disconnect with the real world than it does about anything else.

There should be by now little doubt that Anthony Fauci is not a competent or reliable source of information. Obviously there have been a litany of documented examples of this throughout the years, with a more recent example of his brazen disregard for the results of his preferred policies and recommendations. Unmasked is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Does anyone believe it would be out of line for us to expect those setting public health policy and making life changing medical recommendations to have some awareness of the outcomes of their agendas, views, and predictions? For example, it would be reasonable to believe that Anthony Fauci, one of the most important figures in US public health and the head of an organization dedicated to investigating infectious disease response, would be aware of the results of policies he recommended.

There may never be a less self-aware conversation than the one recently had between comedians Conan O’Brien and Zach Galifianakis. It’s no secret that many comedy shows and the entertainment industry at large have one specific demographic they prefer to make fun of: the political right.

The effort to promote COVID vaccines to the general public took many forms. Experts like Anthony Fauci downplayed the extreme difference in risk between age groups, asserting that everyone should be vaccinated, regardless of youth or a lack of other health-related risk factors. The former CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, made the completely unsupported claim that “vaccinated people don’t carry the virus” and “don’t get sick,” promises that were false at the time and proved humiliating later.