The story, told at Breitbart, is essentially this: JD Vance and his wife Usha wanted to take their three young children canoeing (or kayaking, accounts differ) on the Little Miami River, near their Ohio home, for JD’s birthday. Canoes and kayaks are entirely different craft–the fact that left-wing news outlets don’t seem to know the difference is typical–but what they have in common is that they draw very little water.
The Secret Service doesn’t use canoes for its protective details, it uses motorized water craft–speedboats. Portions of the Little Miami River, at this point in the summer, were deep enough for a canoe or a kayak, but not deep enough to operate a motorboat. So the Secret Service had the Corps of Engineers release some water to temporarily raise the level of the Little Miami in order for its boats to operate safely.
So what, you ask? The liberal press went crazy, beginning with the always-unreliable Guardian:
It all started with a piece from the Guardian late on Wednesday which said in the headline, “JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip.”
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The New Republic ran a headline claiming: “JD Vance Abused Power to Raise River Levels for Family Kayaking Trip.”HuffPost said this in a headline: “JD Vance Had A River’s Water Level Raised For His Family Vacation.”
The Daily Beast said this: “JD Vance Ordered a River’s Water Level Raised for His Family Boat Trip.”
The New York Times and many other “mainstream” Democratic Party papers joined in.
Faux comedian Stephen Colbert, playing out the string at CBS, called it an “insane spoiled baby emperor move.” Ethics “expert” Richard Painter denounced the brief raising of the river’s water level by the Corps of Engineers. And so on.
It got so bad that the Secret Service issued a statement to the effect that Vance had nothing to do with the temporary release of water:
Another case of leftwing media lunatics suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome making up a completely fake story.
Secret Service raised the water level for safety reasons without even telling JD. They’re attacking a dad for taking his kids kayaking. Totally pathetic!!! https://t.co/8RUZbJPvA5 pic.twitter.com/Cnkpp9ZW82
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 8, 2025
This episode is one of many that define the current media landscape. The Democratic Party press has realized the old dream of men like Joseph Goebbels: they have abandoned any pretense of news reporting, in favor of 24/7 propaganda. Any connection between their stories and the truth is coincidental. But their mission is clear: smear JD Vance in advance of the 2028 presidential election, in which he is a likely Republican nominee.
The Democrats’ focus on promoting hate is notable, too. Gaslighting is by no means a thing of the past, but now that the Biden administration is over it takes a distinct back seat. The Democratic Party press wastes little or no time trying to build up party leaders like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries. About them, one might almost say, the less said the better. Rather, stimulating hatred toward Republicans is the obsessive preoccupation of the left-wing press.
Does it work? It seems to. Around half the country gets its “news” from these sources, and they don’t seem to notice, or maybe don’t care, that the “news” is largely fake. Maybe truth wins out over time; one certainly hopes so. But at the moment, it seems more likely that in 2026, and again in 2028, our country will be evenly divided between those who have some idea what is going on, and those who are too far gone in hate to care.
