The Watchdog with David Bozell

Remember USA Today?

For years, it was the newspaper every hotel in America seemed determined to stuff under your door before sunrise. You could not escape it: the colorful front page, the little state-by-state news blurbs, the sports section. USA Today wanted to be America’s newspaper.

Well, America’s newspaper has apparently decided Republican speeches now require warning labels.

Credit to @mazemoore on X, which is a terrific follow for anyone interested in media bias and accountability, for catching what happened on USA Today's own YouTube channel this week.

During Vice President JD Vance’s speech, USA Today placed a large warning across the screen:

“THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN VERIFIED BY USA TODAY.”

Not for a questionable statistic.

Not for a disputed claim.

For the entire speech.

President Trump received the same treatment when USA Today carried his remarks this week.

Now here is where it gets good: USA Today’s YouTube channel also aired speeches from Bernie Sanders and Al Sharpton this week.

No warning. No disclaimer.

No helpful reminder that Bernie Sanders’ statements had not yet been certified by the crack verification team at USA Today.

Sharpton somehow made it through, too.

Same news organization. Same YouTube channel. Same week.

Different standard.

When Trump and Vance speak, USA Today apparently believes viewers need adult supervision.

When Bernie Sanders or Al Sharpton speaks, everybody is suddenly trusted to figure things out for themselves.

The chyron tells you almost everything you need to know about the modern media.

Bias does not always arrive in a screaming headline or an angry editorial. Sometimes it is a little banner at the top of a screen telling millions of people, before a Republican has even finished speaking, that his words are uniquely suspicious.

And audiences notice.

USA Today remains a major news property. It is the 11th most popular news website in America, with approximately 89.9 million visits.

But its traffic is also down 22 percent year over year.

Twenty-two percent.

And somewhere, I imagine, a meeting is underway to solve the mystery.

Maybe the logo needs work. Maybe the homepage needs another redesign. Maybe they need more TikTok videos.

Or maybe people are tired of a newspaper lecturing them about whom they are allowed to trust.

For decades, USA Today wanted to be America’s newspaper.

Now it puts warning labels on the President and Vice President while Bernie Sanders strolls onto the screen like he has already been FDA-approved.

Beautiful.

Keep it up, fellas.

At 22 percent down, whatever you are doing is obviously working.

Take it easy,David Bozell
President