The establishment press has a new target—Trump's incoming White House press secretary Katie Zacharia—and their playbook is as tired as it is transparent: slap a label, skip the argument, and hope nobody notices there's no journalism happening.
Both Raw Story and the Daily Beast want you to know Zacharia posted some explosive things on Truth Social. What they don't want to do is engage with any of it. Instead, they deploy their favorite shortcut—call it "bonkers," call it "jaw-dropping," call it "conspiratorial"—and move on. The message to readers is clear: stop thinking, we've already decided this is crazy.
Here's what Zacharia actually posted, per research by Popular Information's Judd Legum that both outlets relied on: On September 4, 2022—the day John Podesta joined the Biden White House—she wrote, "Pedo Podesta. #pedoPodesta." That same day: "The radical left Hollywood elitists are sick pedo cannibals. Change my mind." She tagged Sean Hannity asking, "[W]here's the feature on John Podesta?" She reposted a claim that "Democrats want to mask and rape your children. That's their satanic platform." She engaged with QAnon-adjacent posts about Trump's behavior signaling coded messages. She also offered evidence for the so-called "Devolution" theory—the idea Trump secretly retained military control—citing Biden's inaugural gun salute as proof.
Now, you can think these claims are wrong. You can think they're reckless. But here's what the outlets don't do: refute them. The Daily Beast calls Pizzagate "debunked numerous times over the last decade" without linking to a single debunking. Raw Story stamps "baseless" on every theory like a bureaucratic form. This isn't journalism—it's catechism. The congregation already knows what to believe; the priest just has to say the word.
The framing tells you everything. Daily Beast leads with "mouthpiece" and "jaw-dropping claims." Raw Story goes with "bonkers beliefs." These aren't neutral descriptors—they're thought-terminating clichés designed to signal which team you're on. The subtext: only a fool would take any of this seriously.
But here's the thing about conspiracy theories in 2024: the establishment's own track record—WMDs in Iraq, Hunter Biden's laptop, COVID lab origins—has burned through whatever benefit of the doubt they once had. When the press tells you to stop asking questions, that's exactly when ordinary Americans should start.
Zacharia's professional history complicates the "crazy lady" narrative, so it gets buried. Before her MAGA turn, she lived in Beijing and worked as a corporate lawyer at Compassion for Migrant Children, according to her LinkedIn. She served at Trump Media & Technology Group and under Kristi Noem. The Daily Beast noted this at the bottom; Raw Story ignored it entirely.
The real jaw-dropping claim here isn't anything Zacharia posted. It's that outlets like Raw Story and Daily Beast still pretend to be in the journalism business. Labeling isn't reporting. Dismissal isn't rebuttal. And Americans are catching on.
