What the Media Didn't Tell You in 2025
The Reason editors examine the most underreported stories of 2025 across politics, economics, global affairs, and culture.
This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Matt Welch are joined by Reason senior editor Robby Soave to share the stories they believe didn't receive sufficient media attention in 2025. Each panelist selected a story from 2025 in the categories of politics, private industry, global affairs, and culture that deserves a closer look as we head into 2026.
0:00—Political stories that deserved more attention
11:14—The year's underreported economic stories
25:56—Global stories the media overlooked in 2025
37:19—Cultural moments that flew under the radar
Mentioned in This Podcast
"The Trump Admin Wants Western Union and MoneyGram To Report on Immigrants," by Matthew Petti
"Treasury Department Surveillance at the Southern Border Faces Fourth Amendment Challenges," by Tosin Akintola
"Taking $200 Out of an ATM Should Not Trigger Federal Financial Surveillance," by Joe Lancaster
"Banks Are Narcing on You Because Congress Forces Them To," by Nicholas Anthony
"How Trump's Travel Crackdown Is Hurting Americans at Home and Abroad," by Matt Welch
"Nepal's Socialist Government Banned Social Media, So Activists Plotted a Revolution—on Discord," by Matthew Petti
"Biden Strengthened the Refugee Resettlement System. Will Trump Undo It?" by Fiona Harrigan
"Worldwide Refugee Population Hits All-Time High, U.S. Intake Reaches All-Time Low," by Matt Welch
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Video Editor: Ian Keyser
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What the media didn't tell you
Proceeds to reference articles where reason pushes leftist bullshit/propaganda
Headline made me laugh based on the number of stories reason ignores simply because it either is isolated to democrats or the NYT ignored the story.
The top story in every app I scroll through is the Tim Walz / Somalia (aka Minnesota) massive fraud scheme, and until recently it wasn't on a single news site. Now Fox finally has some coverage of it. Probably the most clear showing that the old media is near dead and new media is just wondering which nail in the coffin will be the last one (and whether they already hammered it in or not)
Oh also another white woman was randomly stabbed to death by a black man in a Barnes and Nobles and apparently we are already so numb to it after the last one, it didn't move the needle the tiniest bit.
Want to hear how it is even more fucked up? They knew about the fraud in 2018 and simply made it easier to commit the fraud.
https://www.fox9.com/news/senate-calls-for-hearing-after-fox-9-daycare-fraud-investigation
That's from 2018.
Omar and Walz should be investigated.
Omar with 30 million in pocket in one year should have every color of flag raised.
The democratic party as we know it today probably couldn't survive very long as a nationally competitive, viable entity without the tens (if not hundreds) of billions of dollars of fraud. It has become a fully baked-in key component of their entire business model.
It's a vast circular network of vote-buying and favor-trading that involves dozens of little-known government agencies at all levels, NGOs, shady-ass charities, shell corporations, hedge funds, and 501(c)s. And all of it is deliberately designed to be as opaque as possible and almost impossible to figure out exactly how all the scams work, much less to try to crack down on it and get convictions. Even honest fair-minded jurors would have a difficult time wrapping their heads around it all.
it didn't move the needle the tiniest bit
Does incredulity at the fact that Barnes and Nobles is not just open but, apparently, a haunt for burgeoning rap artists count?
"What the Media Didn't Tell You in 2025"
This has to be one of the ballsiest headlines ever from Reason Magazine.
The list of major stories with strong libertarian angles that Reason has conspicuously ignored because they clash with Koch-aligned priorities or embarrass Beltway establishment darlings has long been meme-worthy.
The latest glaring omission: the exploding multi-billion-dollar government fraud scandals in Minnesota (starting with the $250+ million Feeding Our Future scheme and now encompassing potentially $9+ billion across 14 Medicaid/social services programs), with similar large-scale daycare and welfare fraud patterns surfacing in Ohio's immigrant communities, and California's perennial multi-billion-dollar welfare and pandemic relief losses that everyone just assumes are baked in.
Enormously important but yet not a peep from the politruks running the show at Reason. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of all the things that they have purposefully ignored in the last eight years.
They covered it, kinda. They downplayed how widespread the fraud and abuse is while also saying you can't criticize Somalians or suggest this is an example of negative immigration effects.
It's worse than that. This story should be catnip for a supposed taxpayer watchdog. They should be running daily victory laps, trumpeting the proof that most of your taxpayer dollars are being stolen or wasted.
Instead we have gotten exactly TWO articles. One about how insulting Trump's anti-Somali rhetoric is, and one titled "The Real Villain in Minnesota’s $1.5 Billion Fraud Scandal Isn’t Somalis—It’s the Feds".
I realize this story runs counter to Reason's claim that all immigrants are made of magic and that they actually commit massive tax fraud at a lower rate than native-born Americans, yada yada. But this blackout is so glaring, I have to treat it as what it is: Further proof that this rag is just another leftist outlet that cares a lot more about running cover for Democrats/ Muslims/ minorities/ immigrants than it cares about one of the greatest (uncovered) taxpayer fraud stories of all time.
Right Angle News Network
@Rightanglenews
BREAKING - Somalians in Minnesota are furious after being exposed for massive fraud and say Americans should instead be thanking them.
“You should be thanking us for being so successful.
Somalis should be applauded and celebrated for bringing clout and money to this random Midwestern state. Minnesota would be nothing without us!”
Video
https://x.com/Rightanglenews/status/2005334977496375697
78% of Somalian are on welfare. 22% are on fraud.
Look, they investigated the story about eating cats to the point where it was confirmed that it wasn't Springfield, it was Columbus, it was wild geese, not cats, that the man carrying them around in the video couldn't be confirmed to be an immigrant, and that it couldn't be *known* that he ate them any more than he was just carrying them to the local dump for disposal, the work that regular Americans won't do.
Vance was wrong. What more investigation do you expect them to do?
This is becoming a pretty big story. I look forward to Reason's coverage of it:
Former Somali Prime Minister Khaire at MN rally for Ilhan Omar: "Her interests are not America. Ilhan is for Somalia."
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/2005502209530937659
"Her interests are not America. Ilhan is for Somalia."
Not exactly news.
LMAO:
“It’s called a Learing Center, Tone. It’s basically a daycare for autistic Somali kids but they don’t actually gotta show up. It’s all run by some retarded guy in St. Paul or some shit.”
https://x.com/Prisonmitch/status/2005796770404852010
https://x.com/zarathustra5150/status/2005837417815650487
The memes will be endless.
https://x.com/GarbageHuman24/status/2005834947349958836
I want to live between two day care centers in Minneapolis because I hate being around kids.
https://x.com/JimNorton/status/2005491025880739968
These are backwards times, a creepy rich guy has an island with more kids than a daycare in Minnesota
https://x.com/marknorm/status/2005803486961692851
This Graduation Day Photo of AOC and Jasmine Crockett is going viral
https://x.com/iFindDumbFucks/status/2005658163723579806
Autocorrect trying to prevent everyone from tweeting “Learing”
https://x.com/grandoldmemes/status/2005801058925449628
2019: learn to code
2025: lear to daycare
https://x.com/ASvanevik/status/2005431409520046344
Oops:
NEW: MN Department of Children commissioner Tikki Brown claims the Quality Learing Center closed down last week, which explains why there were no children when Nick Shirley visited.
Today, however, the Quality Learing Center was packed with kids.
The New York Post reports the children were "trucked" in, with one local saying it was the first time they had seen kids go into the building.
They need to coordinate next time before they try to cover up a crime.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/2005845252247318729
If anyone wants to play along (or just wait for the Reason in-depth coverage):
I was shocked at the difficulty in finding receipts for trillions of dollars in government spending, blocked by bureaucracy.
So I made a Freedom of Information Act request template for all 50 states. We should be SCREAMING for a paper trail
https://x.com/beaverd/status/2005837287104340116
DOGE was bad remember. Then it didnt cut spending enough remember. This is reason.
Clearly the most under reported story of 2025 is the Villarreal saga.
It's funny 'cause it's true.
News story the TDS-addled steaming piles of lying shit who write for Reason didn't miss:
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"Trump tells UN agencies to 'adapt, shrink, or die' while offering $2B humanitarian funding pledge"
[...]
"The Trump administration announced a $2 billion pledge for United Nations humanitarian aid Monday and warned agencies must "adapt, shrink, or die" under its overhaul, according to a statement from the Department of State.
The new package comes as the administration reins in traditional foreign assistance and pushes humanitarian organizations to meet stricter standards on efficiency, accountability and oversight.
"Individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die," the statement said after outlining what it called "several key benefits for the United States and American taxpayers."..."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-tells-un-agencies-to-adapt-shrink-or-die-while-offering-2b-humanitarian-funding-pledge/ar-AA1TeXTg?ocid=BingNewsVerp
Perhaps he'll get the UN to provide honest reports regarding the climate? Naah. Too many slopping at that trough!