Capture lane

Media Capture and Control

The Media Capture and Control capture lane traces 618 verified events documenting this mechanism of institutional capture.

618 events From May 26, 1836 To Mar 23, 2026 Open in filter view →
Top 10 actors in this lane 10 actors · 1836–2026
Top actors in Media Capture and Control18401845185018551860186518701875188018851890189519001905191019151920192519301935194019451950195519601965197019751980198519901995200020052010201520202025WatergateReaganIran-Contra9/11Citizens UnitedTrump 1.0Trump 2.0Donald Trump1335 eventsElon Musk183 eventsAmazonJeff BezosxAICondoleezza RiceDepartment of Justice318 eventsFacebookWhite House Iraq GroupKarl Rove
Capture lanecorruptiondemocraticexecutivefinancialintelligencejudiciallaborlegislativemediamilitaryotherregulatory Status confirmed alleged disputed
DateEventLanesStatus
2024-03-05Treasury Department Sanctions Intellexa Consortium and Tal Dilian
U.S. Treasury Department · Office of Foreign Assets Control · Tal Jonathan Dilian · Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou · +2
confirmed
2024-02-15AI Ethics Study Highlights Systemic Bias and Misinformation Risks in Grok AI
Stanford HAI Researchers · Elon Musk · xAI Team · AI Ethics Researchers · +1
confirmed
2024-02-15First Major Grok AI Safety Failure Documented
Elon Musk · xAI · AI Safety Researchers · Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence · +2
confirmed
2024-02-09Meta makes political content non-recommended by default on Instagram and Threads
Meta · Instagram · Threads
confirmed
2024-02-02Joe Rogan Signs New $250 Million Spotify Deal, No Longer Exclusive
Joe Rogan · Spotify · The Joe Rogan Experience
confirmed
2024-01-03Jeffrey Epstein Associates Documents Released to Public
Loretta Preska · Virginia Giuffre · Ghislaine Maxwell · Bill Clinton · +1
confirmed
2023-12-15AI Safety Experts Reveal Grok Vulnerability Patterns
AI Safety Researchers · David Rozado · xAI · Elon Musk
confirmed
2023-11-04xAI Launches Grok with Minimal Safety Guardrails
Elon Musk · xAI · Anthropic
confirmed
2023-09-08Fifth Circuit Finds Biden Administration Violated First Amendment Through Social Media Coercion
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · White House · Federal Bureau of Investigation · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · +2
confirmed
2023-08-29X reverses 2019 ban, allows U.S. political ads; verified accounts prioritized in recommendations
X · Twitter · Elon Musk
confirmed
2023-08-24Trump Surrenders at Fulton County Jail, Mugshot Taken - First Presidential Mugshot in History
Donald Trump · Fani Willis
confirmed
2023-07-23Twitter Transformed to X with Systematic Content Moderation Rollback and Political Weaponization
Elon Musk · Twitter · X · Center for Countering Digital Hate · +2
confirmed
2023-07-18SEC Charges DWAC with Securities Fraud, Imposes $18 Million Penalty
Securities and Exchange Commission · Digital World Acquisition Corp · Trump Media & Technology Group
confirmed
2023-06-29FBI Arrests Three in "Trust Social" Investigation for DWAC Insider Trading
Michael Shvartsman · Gerald Shvartsman · Bruce Garelick · Federal Bureau of Investigation · +4
confirmed
2023-06-23Jack Smith grants immunity to fake electors for testimony against Trump
Jack Smith · Michael McDonald · Jim DeGraffenreid · Donald Trump
confirmed
2023-06-02YouTube stops removing false claims about past U.S. elections
YouTube · Google
confirmed
2023-05-10Senate Hearing Exposes PBM Insulin Profiteering: 75% of Sales Go to Rebates and Fees
Bernie Sanders · Senate HELP Committee · Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen · Paul Hudson · +7
confirmed
2023-05-09Tucker Carlson Announces Move to Twitter/X, Forgoes $25 Million to Break Non-Compete
Tucker Carlson · Elon Musk · Twitter · X · +2
confirmed
2023-03-27X prioritizes verified accounts for recommendations and polls
Elon Musk · X · Twitter
confirmed
2023-03-22Digital World Acquisition Corp Fires CEO Patrick Orlando Amid SEC Investigation
Patrick Orlando · Digital World Acquisition Corp · DWAC · Trump Media & Technology Group · +2
confirmed
2023-03-15DOJ Arrests Guo Wengui in Landmark $1 Billion Fraud Conspiracy
Guo Wengui · Ho Wan Kwok · Kin Ming Je · Department of Justice · +2
confirmed
2023-01-03Federal Court Orders Unsealing of Jeffrey Epstein Case Documents
Loretta Preska · Virginia Giuffre · Ghislaine Maxwell · Miami Herald · +1
confirmed
2023-01-03X expands permitted political advertising in the U.S.
X · Twitter · Elon Musk
confirmed
2022-12-15Trump Launches Massive NFT Collection Generating .4 Million in Initial Sales
Donald Trump
confirmed
2022-12-09Twitter Files Release Exposes Systematic Government-Social Media Coordination Infrastructure for Information Control and Democratic Manipulation
Elon Musk · X Corporation · Matt Taibbi · Bari Weiss · +7
confirmed
2022-10-27Elon Musk Completes Twitter Acquisition with Substantial Saudi and Qatari Investment
Elon Musk · Prince Alwaleed bin Talal · Kingdom Holding Company · Qatar Investment Authority · +2
confirmed
2022-10-12Alex Jones Ordered to Pay $965 Million in Sandy Hook Defamation Trial
Alex Jones · Sandy Hook victim families · Connecticut Superior Court
confirmed
2022-10-01Sinclair Broadcasting Reaches 40% of US Households Through Local News Monopoly
Sinclair Broadcast Group · David Smith · Chris Ripley · Local News Stations
confirmed
2022-06-07FTC Launches Bipartisan Investigation into PBM Market Concentration and Drug Pricing
Federal Trade Commission · Lina Khan · Chuck Grassley · Maria Cantwell · +3
confirmed
2022-06-06Milo Yiannopoulos Becomes Unpaid Intern for Marjorie Taylor Greene After Connecting Her to White Nationalists
Milo Yiannopoulos · Marjorie Taylor Greene · Nick Fuentes
confirmed
2021-11-03US Commerce Department Adds Candiru and NSO Group to Entity List
US Commerce Department · Bureau of Industry and Security · Candiru · NSO Group · +1
confirmed
2021-10-18NPR Documents How Hedge Fund Newspaper Ownership Creates News Deserts and Undermines Democracy - Over 2,500 Newspapers Closed Since 2005
Alden Global Capital · Local Newspapers · Hedge Funds · Communities · +1
confirmed
2021-10-03Pandora Papers Expose Global Elite's Offshore Financial Networks
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists · King Abdullah II of Jordan · Andrej Babiš · Volodymyr Zelenskyy · +4
confirmed
2021-09-01Joe Rogan Announces He Treated COVID with Unproven Ivermectin, Sparking Medical Misinformation Controversy
Joe Rogan · Spotify · The Joe Rogan Experience · Food and Drug Administration · +3
confirmed
2021-07-18Pegasus Project Exposes Global Surveillance of 50,000 Targets by NSO Group Clients
Forbidden Stories · Amnesty International · Citizen Lab · The Guardian · +3
confirmed
2021-07-04Jason Miller Launches Gettr with Hidden Guo Wengui Funding
Jason Miller · Guo Wengui · Gettr · Steve Bannon · +2
confirmed
2021-07-01Twitter Permanently Suspends Nick Fuentes, Completing Major Platform Deplatforming
Nick Fuentes
confirmed
2021-05-21Alden Global Capital Completes $633 Million Tribune Publishing Acquisition - "Vulture" Hedge Fund Becomes Second-Largest U.S. Newspaper Publisher
Alden Global Capital · Tribune Publishing · Randall D. Smith · Chicago Tribune · +3
confirmed
2021-05-13Leaked Video Exposes Heritage Action's $24 Million Voter Suppression Campaign Coordinating State Legislation
Heritage Action · Jessica Anderson · Heritage Foundation · Hans von Spakovsky · +5
confirmed
2021-04-06Stephen Miller Founds America First Legal to Challenge Biden Administration and Advance White Nationalist Agenda
Stephen Miller · Mark Meadows · Matthew Whitaker
confirmed
2021-01-20Freedom House Downgrades US Democracy Score to 83/100
Freedom House · United States · Donald Trump · Republican Party
confirmed
2021-01-20Trump Environmental Rollbacks Cause 80,000 Excess Deaths Per Decade
Donald Trump · Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · Scott Pruitt · Andrew Wheeler · +2
confirmed
2021-01-19Navalny Investigation Reveals Putin's Palace Complex
Vladimir Putin · Alexei Navalny · Arkady Rotenberg · Boris Rotenberg · +4
confirmed
2021-01-14Rick Snyder Charged With Misdemeanors for Poisoning Thousands—First Governor Ever Criminally Charged
Rick Snyder · Dana Nessel · Fadwa Hammoud
confirmed
2021-01-13House Impeaches Trump for Second Time on Single Charge of "Incitement of Insurrection"
Donald Trump · Nancy Pelosi · Liz Cheney · Adam Kinzinger · +1
confirmed
2021-01-07Facebook Bans Trump Only After He Loses Power, Following January 6 Insurrection It Enabled
Mark Zuckerberg · Donald Trump · Facebook · Facebook Oversight Board
confirmed
2021-01-06FBI forensics show Trump watched TV and tweeted instead of stopping Capitol riot
Donald Trump · Federal Bureau of Investigation · Jack Smith
confirmed
2021-01-06Nick Fuentes Rallies Supporters Outside Capitol During January 6 Insurrection
Nick Fuentes · Donald Trump
confirmed
2021-01-06Stephen Miller Writes Trump's January 6 Ellipse Speech, Adds Language About Pence Overturning Election
Stephen Miller · Donald Trump · Mike Pence
confirmed
2021-01-06Trump says "So what?" when told Pence evacuated for safety during Capitol riot
Donald Trump · Mike Pence · Nick Luna · Dan Scavino
confirmed
2021-01-02Trump Calls Georgia Secretary of State to Find 11,780 Votes
Donald Trump · Brad Raffensperger · Mark Meadows · Cleta Mitchell · +1
confirmed
2021-01-01Barre Seid Donates $1.6 Billion to Leonard Leo Dark Money Network
Barre Seid · Leonard Leo · Marble Freedom Trust
confirmed
2020-12-27Trump tells acting AG "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me"
Donald Trump · Jeffrey Rosen · Richard Donoghue · Department of Justice
confirmed
2020-12-23DOJ Secret Court Order Targets Washington Post Journalists Days Before Barr's Resignation
William Barr · Michael R. Sherwin · U.S. Department of Justice · Federal Courts · +4
confirmed
2020-12-10CNP Leadership Releases Letter Urging State Legislators to Reject 25 Million Votes
Council for National Policy · Cleta Mitchell · Republican state legislators
confirmed
2020-11-30Giuliani admits to Arizona Speaker "We don't have evidence, but we have lots of theories"
Rudy Giuliani · Rusty Bowers · Donald Trump
confirmed
2020-11-12Newsmax CEO Admits "We Have No Evidence" of Election Fraud, Airs Claims 23 More Times
Christopher Ruddy · Newsmax · Smartmatic · 2020 Election · +1
confirmed
2020-11-03Facebook Rolls Back Election Safety Measures Immediately After 2020 Vote, Enabling "Stop the Steal" Misinformation
Facebook · Mark Zuckerberg · Frances Haugen · Donald Trump · +1
confirmed
2020-10-15YouTube Bans QAnon Content Only After Years of Algorithmic Amplification
YouTube · Google · QAnon movement · Federal Bureau of Investigation · +2
confirmed
2020-10-14FBI Enables Social Media Suppression of Hunter Biden Laptop Story Despite Knowing Authenticity
Federal Bureau of Investigation · Twitter · Facebook · Yoel Roth · +2
confirmed
2020-09-20FinCEN Files Reveal $2 Trillion in Suspicious Banking Transactions
FinCEN · BuzzFeed News · International Consortium of Investigative Journalists · Jason Leopold · +8
confirmed
2020-08-25Secretary of State Pompeo Delivers Historic RNC Speech from Jerusalem Rooftop, Violating Hatch Act After Changing State Department Policy
Mike Pompeo · Donald Trump · Office of Special Counsel
confirmed
2020-08-13Trump Explicitly Admits Blocking USPS Funding to Restrict Mail Voting
Donald Trump · Louis DeJoy · USPS
confirmed
2020-08-13USPS Removes Mailboxes in Democratic Areas, Reverses After Public Outcry
Louis DeJoy · USPS · Donald Trump
confirmed
2020-08-01DeJoy Removes 711 Mail Sorting Machines During Mail-In Voting Surge
Louis DeJoy · USPS · Donald Trump · Federal Courts
confirmed
2020-07-10Trump Commutes Roger Stone Sentence Days Before Prison
Donald Trump · Roger Stone · William Barr · Randy Credico · +1
confirmed
2020-07-08Facebook shuts down 54 Roger Stone accounts spending $300K
Roger Stone · Facebook
confirmed
2020-07-04Trump Holds Mt. Rushmore Rally with 7,500 Packed, Maskless Attendees During Pandemic Surge
Donald Trump · Kristi Noem · Kimberly Guilfoyle
confirmed
2020-07-01During Title 42, unaccompanied children were held in hotels by contractors (e.g., Hampton Inn) before expulsion attempts
Texas Civil Rights Project · MVM Inc. · ICE contractors · Detained families
confirmed
2020-06-15Louis DeJoy Begins Serving as Postmaster General Despite Conflicts of Interest
Louis DeJoy · Donald Trump · USPS Board of Governors
confirmed
2020-06-09FBI Expands Dataminr Contract During George Floyd Protests for Social Media Surveillance of Demonstrations
Federal Bureau of Investigation · Dataminr · NYPD · LAPD · +2
confirmed
2020-06-01Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout After Zuckerberg Refuses to Remove Trump Incitement to Violence
Mark Zuckerberg · Donald Trump · Facebook · Facebook Employees · +1
confirmed
2020-05-19Joe Rogan Signs $100-200 Million Exclusive Deal with Spotify
Joe Rogan · Spotify · The Joe Rogan Experience
confirmed
2020-04-23Trump Suggests Injecting Disinfectant and UV Light Inside Body as COVID Treatments
Donald Trump · William Bryan
confirmed
2020-04-06HHS Inspector General Christi Grimm Reports Severe Hospital Shortages, Trump Attacks Her Credibility
Christi Grimm · Donald Trump · Jason Weida · U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
confirmed
2020-04-01Trump Awards $812M No-Bid COVID Contract to Newly Formed Phlow Corporation
Phlow Corporation · Peter Navarro · Kodak · Donald Trump · +1
confirmed
2020-03-06Trump Wears "Keep America Great" Campaign Hat During CDC Visit, Makes False Testing Claims
Donald Trump · Robert Redfield · Alex Azar · Mike Pence · +1
confirmed
2020-02-14YouTube Terminates Nick Fuentes Channel for Hate Speech Violations
Nick Fuentes
confirmed
2020-01-31Bolton Book Manuscript Reveals Trump Directly Tied Ukraine Aid to Biden Investigation
John Bolton · Donald Trump · Mitch McConnell · Senate Republicans
confirmed
2020-01-18New York Times Exposé Reveals Clearview AI's 3 Billion Photo Surveillance Database
Kashmir Hill · Clearview AI · Hoan Ton-That · New York Times
confirmed
2020-01-01Wage Theft Steals More from Workers Than All Other Property Crime Combined
Corporate employers · Low-wage workers · U.S. Department of Labor · State labor agencies
confirmed
2019-12-13Conservative Lawsuit Forces Wisconsin to Purge 200,000 Voters Before 2020 Election
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty · Wisconsin Elections Commission
confirmed
2019-11-12SPLC Exposes Stephen Miller White Nationalist Emails: 900 Messages Promoting Racist Literature and Hate Sites
Stephen Miller
confirmed
2019-10-25Maria Butina Released from Federal Prison and Immediately Deported to Russia After 15 Months
Maria Butina · Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) · Federal Bureau of Prisons · Russian Government
confirmed
2019-10-17Zuckerberg Georgetown Speech Announces Facebook Will Not Fact-Check Political Ads, Licensing Trump Campaign Lies
Mark Zuckerberg · Facebook · Donald Trump · Joe Biden · +1
confirmed
2019-10-01Anne Nelson Publishes "Shadow Network" - Exposing CNP as Conservative Coordination Hub
Anne Nelson · Council for National Policy
confirmed
2019-10-01Zuckerberg Holds Secret White House Dinners with Trump, Kushner, and Thiel to Negotiate Content Moderation
Mark Zuckerberg · Donald Trump · Jared Kushner · Peter Thiel · +2
confirmed
2019-09-24Trump Freezes Ukraine Military Aid Demanding Biden Investigation
Donald Trump · Volodymyr Zelenskyy · Rudy Giuliani · William Barr · +4
confirmed
2019-09-07MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito resigns after concealing $7.5 million in Epstein-linked donations
Joi Ito · Jeffrey Epstein · MIT Media Lab · MIT administration · +2
confirmed
2019-09-06Commerce Secretary Ross Threatens to Fire NOAA Scientists Who Contradicted Trump's False Hurricane Claim
Wilbur Ross · Donald Trump · Neil Jacobs · Craig McLean
confirmed
2019-08-26Oklahoma Wins $572 Million Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson for Opioid Public Nuisance
Thad Balkman · Johnson & Johnson · State of Oklahoma
confirmed
2019-08-06Bernie Sanders Appears on Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan Later Endorses Sanders for President
Joe Rogan · Bernie Sanders
confirmed
2019-06-28Florida Legislature Enacts "Poll Tax" Requiring Payment of Fines to Undermine Amendment 4
Ron DeSantis · Florida Legislature · Republican Party
confirmed
2019-06-27Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb Joins Pfizer Board After 3-Month Gap
Dr. Scott Gottlieb · Food and Drug Administration · Pfizer · Senator Elizabeth Warren
confirmed
2019-06-27Supreme Court Rules Partisan Gerrymandering Beyond Federal Court Jurisdiction
U.S. Supreme Court · John Roberts · Robert Rucho · Common Cause
confirmed
2019-06-25U.S. Student Debt Surpasses $1.6 Trillion - 107% Increase in a Decade
Federal Reserve
confirmed
2019-06-21E. Jean Carroll Publicly Accuses Trump of Sexual Assault in New York Magazine
E. Jean Carroll · Donald Trump
confirmed
2019-06-13Michigan Drops All Criminal Charges in Flint Water Crisis, Promises New Investigation
Dana Nessel · Nick Lyon · Eden Wells · Darnell Earley
confirmed
2019-06-04Claims from Michael Wolff ('Siege') and later commentary; no public evidence of 'Trump money laundering' via Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein · Michael Wolff · Donald Trump
disputed
2019-05-23Julian Assange Charged Under Espionage Act - Unprecedented Attack on Press Freedom
Julian Assange · WikiLeaks · Department of Justice · Trump Administration
confirmed