The word went out on Saturday that the terrorist attack on Jake Lang and anti-Islamist demonstrators in New York City was to be rebranded as a right-wing attack on Zohran Mamdani.
The media shamelessly took up the challenge, printing headlines and producing stories that completely reshaped the narrative in ways that would have impressed the old propagandists in the Soviet Union.
There are, quite literally, millions of people who have no idea that two ISIS-inspired terrorists who yelled Allahu Akbar as they threw IEDs at a crowd, hoping that they would kill more people than the Boston Marathon bombers, were the perpetrators of the attack. Many believe that Jake Lang and company were trying to kill Zohran Mamdani because the media implied it in tens of stories and headlines, and the New York City political establishment kept implying it by blaming "Islamophobia."
Muslim terrorists threw a nail bomb at anti-Islam protestors outside the mayor's office. It failed to detonate.
— Josh (@XJosh) March 8, 2026
If you just read this article and saw this picture you would think white racists had tried to kill the mayor. pic.twitter.com/ZULVGh8nWy
CBS and The Guardian actually attached pictures of Jake Lang looking freakishly angry, as if he had committed the crime.
But no media outlet went so far into the propaganda as CNN, which did a masterclass in spin yesterday, producing a story that turned a terrorist attack into a gauzy adventure of two young boys.
Whenever the topic is something the media doesn’t like, journalists all become creative writing professors. The press has done everything possible to obfuscate the facts of this story—and it has done so deliberately. pic.twitter.com/YnwnyRwXLe
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) March 10, 2026
The backlash to their story was so harsh and nearly universal that they pulled their tweet and stealth-edited the story, though they only admitted it didn't address the "gravity" of the attack, not that it refused to characterize it correctly.
It didn't take long, though, for the network to try again to mislead its viewers, and even more egregiously.
CNN's Abby Phillip claims that the attempted NYC bombing was "an attempted terror attack against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 11, 2026
The suspects were two Muslim terrorists who pledged allegiance to ISIS and were targeting anti-Islam protesters. pic.twitter.com/xtGIirLPb3
In a remarkable display of chutzpah, Abby Phillip flat-out reversed the victim and the perpetrator, mirroring the Mamdani line that he is under attack for being the first Muslim Mayor of New York City.
CNN's Abby Phillip claims that the attempted NYC bombing was "an attempted terror attack against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 11, 2026
The suspects were two Muslim terrorists who pledged allegiance to ISIS and were targeting anti-Islam protesters. pic.twitter.com/xtGIirLPb3
It took less than 12 hours for CNN to dive back into the propaganda toolbox to invert the truth in the most brazen way possible, confident that it could do so because its viewers trust it to be the truth-teller. And given how many Pravda outlets have been intentionally vague about what happened and who was responsible, they have every right to be confident.
Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are.
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 8, 2026
What followed was even more disturbing. Violence…
Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are.
What followed was even more disturbing. Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.
If one lives in a bubble created by Pravda, why wouldn't one be susceptible to believing this lie? How could you tell it was a lie?
There is no doubt as to their motivations: Both men spoke freely and unrepentantly to police at the scene, proudly claiming inspiration from ISIS and stating they had intended their terrorist atrocity to be “bigger than Boston” — a reference to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that took the lives of three and injured scores more. Only the incompetence of the bombers prevented Saturday from turning into one of the darkest days in recent New York history.
Yet one would know none of this were one to go only by the headlines and framing devices the mainstream media have consistently used to explain this story to American readers, who — like it or not — primarily consume their news in headline rather than article form. NBC New York got an early start on what would quickly become an overwhelming trend, telling a curiously noncommittal story over the weekend: “Multiple arrests made after ‘suspicious devices’ found outside Gracie Mansion, home of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, during anti-Islam rally and counterprotest.” The Daily News’ headline whimpered, “Protestors throw smoking improvised device, clash over Jake Lang pig roast at ‘anti-Islamification’ rally at Gracie Mansion.” The tone-setting New York Times itself wrestled with curiously tortured locutions: “Smoking Jars of Metal and Fuses Thrown at Protest Near Mayor’s House.”
It is impossible not to notice that all of these headlines — or countless others from similarly situated media outlets — are carefully crafted to avoid stating a politically inconvenient truth: Islamic terrorists came horrifyingly close to detonating bombs in a crowd of protesters. Instead, our attention is directed toward the “hateful” nature of the rally, and readers are asked to fill in the missing narrative gaps with their own imaginations instead.
It is simply a fact that, even in the internet age and with the availability of information on X, Pravda gets to set the agenda for what most people see, and the Overton Window for what people are allowed to think. Some of us are well outside that bubble, but it's easy to underestimate how many are still within it.
Spoiler alert: The 'white supremacist' rally had NOTHING to do with the explosive devices, which were hurled at police. https://t.co/FZ3fp65Zln
— Mike LaChance (@MikeLaChance33) March 9, 2026
CNN's history of pushing false narratives is long and impossible to detail in something as short as an essay, but the controversy that is only shared on X about its insane misrepresentation has produced a list of whoppers from recent years.
— NIBS (@AHarVesco) March 11, 2026
— Cucci-Stenck Productions (@BiggerValbowski) March 11, 2026
— Cucci-Stenck Productions (@BiggerValbowski) March 11, 2026
To say that CNN is trash propaganda is being too kind to CNN and too harsh to trash propaganda. CNN, being the "most trusted name in news," as they claim, is the Baghdad Bob of news, or, since they currently have a correspondent in Tehran doing regime propaganda, the Tehran Terry.
Never forget how CNN intentionally used a blurry and yellow filter to make Joe Rogan appear sick.pic.twitter.com/gxlt6I2D0V
— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) January 8, 2026
As far as I can tell, Mamdani or his comms people put out the word on what the spin should be on the story, and many in the media acted like stenographers for a man who recently attended a ceremony where the Imam preached murdering Christians.
Correcting the record. Gaslighting about this week’s terrorist attack in NYC can’t continue. pic.twitter.com/0YJHrEsq41
— Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) March 11, 2026
Here's a headline for a thinkpiece on the terrorist attack:
And the lede:
The atmosphere around Gracie Mansion on Saturday changed in a blink-and-you-might-miss-it moment.
Did that really just happen?
For two hours, the sleepy streets around the mansion, home of New York City’s mayor, became the stage for a heated protest reflecting a country seething with angst and unease.
A MAGA influencer and Jan. 6 participant, Jake Lang, had attracted a small group of his followers to join him in an anti-Muslim protest outside Zohran Mamdani’s home. Counterprotesters came in larger numbers, which swelled to 100. Taunts and shouts were exchanged, and some of the counterprotesters were sprayed with pepper spray by one of Mr. Lang’s fellow protesters.
Then a young man on the counterprotesters’ side of the street lit and threw an incendiary device. There were cries of “Bomb!”, the clang of a drum, the din of footsteps pounding as people ran toward police barricades, jostling and confusion. Police officers tackled someone to the ground.
Does that sound like a terrorist attack from two ISIS-inspired Islamists who wanted maximum death from their IEDs? The first paragraphs are about Jake Lang. The bombs? "An incendiary device."
Two men inspired by ISIS tried to detonate homemade bombs yesterday in Manhattan. But you wouldn’t know that from New York City’s mayor https://t.co/l2oYhX0pv4
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) March 9, 2026
And now, a few days after all this happened, we have Abby Phillip actually saying that this was a terrorist attack on Mamdani. No hedging, no spin. Just an outright lie. And, when caught on X, she replies on X that she made a "mistake." How many people who viewed her program will see a post on X?
Tells the lie to a million viewers.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 11, 2026
Gives the apology online, where very few people will even see it.
She knows what she’s doing. https://t.co/yQDtkWhUj5
I want to correct something I said last night. The bombs thrown in New York City over the weekend by ISIS inspired attackers was thrown into a crowd of anti-Muslim protestors and not specifically targeted at Mayor Mamdani. That wording was inaccurate and I didn’t catch it ahead of time. I apologize for the error.
This is why I call the media "Pravda."
Flashback: Abby Phillip explains to Joy Reid that her job is to ensure conservatives hear "the facts” because they live in "a completely different information world."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 11, 2026
“When you don't ever even hear the facts, it's hard to even know that you're wrong." https://t.co/XeopyM3Qsj pic.twitter.com/1HvM9BJ7PL
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