For decades a staple of the far-right has been the story that the news media in the United States is unreliable, doesn't tell the true story, and even promulgates outright lies. There was the "absolute reality" that the moonshot was faked, that the government is filled with communists, that whites are the superior race, or that both 9/11 and the Newtown massacres were false flag government psychological operations. Conspiracy theorist and right-wingers have long pointed the finger of doubt or damnation at the corporate news agencies in our country.

Here in Washington, DC, the Environmental Protection Agency - EPA - has reversed course on fracking.

Initially, the agency had concluded in a draft report that released last year that fracking had no "widespread, systemic impact" on drinking water.

That conclusion outraged environmentalists as well factions of scientists within the EPA itself.

Yesterday President Obama added to his environmental legacy by banning offshore drilling in the US Arctic and along the East Coast.

The move, which will protect marine wildlife and stop oil spills, is significant in large part because it's effectively permanent.

You need to know this... Donald Trump is setting up a cabinet of plutocrats.