In 2025, hypocrisy in the establishment media is as dependable as sunrise.
These are the same media outlets that described the 2020 riots as “mostly peaceful” while cities burned, and now, with all the subtlety of a U-turn in a parking garage, pretend they didn’t spend years propping up President Joe Biden as the picture of mental acuity. The only consistency they offer is their commitment to the narrative over the truth.
So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a shock that one of the most absurd smear campaigns of the year — accusing Elon Musk of making a Nazi salute — is being re-litigated not because it held any water, but because the media is now ignoring a near-identical moment from Democratic Senator Cory Booker.
Let’s rewind. Shortly after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Elon Musk, then head of the Department of Government Efficiency, gave a heartfelt speech during a celebratory event. At one point, Musk put his hand over his heart and then extended it outward — a simple, emotional gesture meant to convey gratitude.
The media’s response? They pounced, claiming Musk had made a Nazi salute. That smear spiraled so widely it now has a Wikipedia page.
Fast forward to this past weekend. At a Democratic convention in Anaheim, California, Senator Booker gave what was described by the New York Times as a “thunderous speech that brought the crowd to its feet.” In the heat of the moment, Booker made the exact same gesture as Musk.
The response? Crickets.
No outraged headlines. No breathless op-eds about fascist iconography. No CNN panels wringing their hands over “dangerous imagery.” Just silence.
A side-by-side video of the two gestures, posted to X (formerly Twitter), makes the hypocrisy obvious. “Elon Musk shows his love to the crowd and the media portrays Elon as a Nazi/Hitler supporter. Cory Booker makes the same gesture and the media is radio silent,” one user posted.
Another X user summed it up bluntly: “It’s almost as if they lied.”
There are only a few possible explanations for this discrepancy, and none of them reflect well on our modern press. Is it because Elon Musk is a white conservative official in Trump’s cabinet, and Cory Booker is a black Democrat with the right party affiliation? That may be an uncomfortable truth, but it sure fits the pattern.
This isn’t a call to smear Booker. The gesture — in both cases — was clearly a non-verbal expression of emotion, not a history lesson in fascist propaganda. The issue isn’t the gesture; it’s the double standard in coverage.
The establishment media doesn’t just move the goalposts. They hide them, rename them, and then gaslight anyone who dares to notice.
It’s why more and more Americans are tuning out mainstream media and seeking the truth elsewhere — not because they’ve abandoned facts, but because the people who once claimed to be the gatekeepers of facts no longer care about them.
Until the press applies even a modicum of consistency to how it treats people on different sides of the political aisle, its credibility will remain in freefall. And rightly so.