Breaking Points pushes pro-war propaganda funded by the military-industrial complex.

Supposedly "independent media" pushes pro-war propaganda.

Breaking points is a populist youtube channel hosted by populist left commentator Krystal Ball and populist right commentator Saagar Enjeti. The show has become very popular on youtube gaining 589 thousand subscribers over a short period of time. Many of their videos cover the daily news from a populist lens. I personally have enjoyed much of the show and agree with many of their takes. But eventually, I noticed a strange theme of Hawkishness towards China throughout their videos. They consistently pushed the lab-leak theory, a theory that argues on very thin evidence that covid-19 originated from a lab in WuHan, China. This at first was understandable for a populist channel to cover as facebook originally censored any mention of the story. This seemed an understandable thing to cover as many including myself are concerned over growing internet censorship and the way in which social media has taken down any content criticizing the official narrative sounding Covid-19 in any way. But the channel took a weird turn on this narrative when it started to push this story as if it was factually true mostly using Washington post report, Josh Rogin as a source. On June 21st Saagar and Krystal hosted Rogin to talk about the lab leak. This seemed really weird for a supposed populist anti-war channel to do as Josh Rogin along with fellow neo-cons Bari Weiss and Mike Pompeo was clearly pushing this narrative to advance a new-cold war with China. If you take a quick glance at his Washington post page as of today you will find him writing opinion pieces telling Joe Biden to be tougher on Syria, North Korea and Afghanistan. A further look at his Washington post page will reveal he has pushed for more military involvement in Afghanistan, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Iran.

This pro-war turn on the show took an even darker turn recently when Saagar Enjeti and guest host Marshall Kosloff invited on Jacob Helberg who openly supported the United States arming Taiwan and openly advocated the United States going to war with China if China invades Taiwan. The guest failed to mention that only 15 countries even recognize Taiwan as a country and that China’s supposed “violation of Taiwan's air space” was airspace over mainland China and not recognized as Tiwanises air defense space under any international treaties. The segment seemed like any other pro-war segment you would see on Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN not a populist alternative show. Unfortunately, Saagar Enjenti decided not to disclose some important information about his guest. Jacob Helberg works for a think tank called the center for strategic and international studies. The thank tank is funded by arms manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin as well as oil companies like Exxon mobile and Saudi Armco, Saudi Arabia's state oil company. The think tank also takes in a lot of state funding including funds from Japan, Taiwan, UAE, United States, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand the U.K. and more. This is significantly important as many of these states are leading the charge for a war with China.

This seems like textbook journalistic malpractice for Enjenti to not disclose his guests’ funding but then again his past funding is questionable as well. As journalist Alex Rubinstein pointed out to me in response to my Twitter thread on this issue Saagar previously worked for a think tank called “The Hudson Institute” that takes money from arms manufacturers, Taiwan, South Korea, Rubert Murdoch, Pierre Omidyar, and others. Again none of this has been disclosed by Enjenti in his segments on China. Investigative journalist Alan Macleod went into even further detail on Enjenti’s past studying “counter-terrorism” at an Israeli university, training for a security state position at George Washington Univiersity and working at a pro Iraq war think tank.

This kind of journalistic malpractice should not be tolerated in the alternative media. Many including myself would have thought of breaking points of a populist outlet that advocated ending wars and spending money instead on popular policies like Medicare for all. Instead, they are inviting on Washinton Post neo-cons and MIC-funded goons to advocate war with China. Progressives, socialists, populists and leftists alike should be wary of breaking points from here on out. They clearly have an alterior pro-war agenda.