Get access to Brad Slager's "Riffed From the Headlines," a daily VIP feature where he looks to bring accountability to the mainstream media. Use promo code FAKENEWS to get 50% off your VIP membership.
DNC PR Firm – MSNBC
The need to prop up an adult film star as a powerful woman of grace is just a smidge desperate.
Following the appearance of Stormy Daniels yesterday in the Trump court case, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin delivered remote commentary about the testimony, and it is a lesson in desperation. Rubin starts by condemning Trump's lawyer for using a few tactics to attempt to discredit Daniels as a witness, the kind of behavior known in the legal profession as "doing his job." Next, she addresses the revelation that Stormy considers herself a medium who performed an exorcism on her boyfriend, trying to make this sound like normal, rational character traits.
The best, however, is that after the lawyer points out she appeared in over 200 adult films and sold herself, and after Daniels tried to dispute this, Rubin hailed Daniels as a strong-willed, self-possessed woman who stands up for herself and does not allow anyone to control her.
Then immediately Rubin described how Daniels was a victim of Donald Trump…in the tryst the adult star agreed to with the man.
"This was very much what I call a 'nuts and sluts' defense."
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 9, 2024
WATCH: @lawofruby breaks down the feeling inside the courtroom during the rest of Stormy Daniels' testimony and the strategy the defense chose to use against her. pic.twitter.com/YwI0JtSlw9
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – CNN
Rupert Murdoch is entirely to blame when…something does not happen.
To get a sense of how Oliver Darcy does not perform his stated duties of being a "media" critic and instead focuses specifically on conservative outlets, he displays how bothered he is that members of the media dare criticize a judge on a Trump trial. Darcy says the right-wing media are attacking Judge Juan Merchan, who's presiding over Trump's New York case – and despite being fed this from Media Matters, he cites just one instance, that is Mark Levin.
Ollie, however, shows absolutely ZERO concern with the fact that in Trump's document court case, Judge Aileen Cannon, who delayed the proceedings because Special Counsel Jack Smith butchered the evidence, is being scorched by the press over this move. Yesterday, we covered Joy Reid saying with no proof this was a move to get her onto the Supreme Court.
Chris Hayes, Laurence Tribe, Glenn Kirschner, Ty Cobb, and a laundry list of others have been delivering the kind of accusations that Oliver seems bothered with – if they come from the right.
Andrew Weissmann on Judge Cannon: ‘It is truly a disgrace she is not doing her job’ https://t.co/WvWr65cICr via @msnbc
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) May 8, 2024
Presentation Paradox – SLATE
Is this a pro-Trump campaign ad?
Mark Joseph Stern believed he had a valid point about choosing our next president based on the premise of their Supreme Court selections. He then put up pictures of justices Trump and Biden have placed, and the image of one incapable of defining a woman makes the choice rather clear – just not the choice Mark intended.
As an aside, the belief that judges rule over us is a rather dystopian approach to SCOTUS.
I hope the chasmic differences between Trump and Biden's judicial appointees reenters the 2024 conversation soon because I personally think we should, as a voting public, spend much more time thinking about the judges who will effectively rule us for the next 30 years. pic.twitter.com/2LmofyVvGD
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 8, 2024
Low-Octane Gaslighting – FORBES
That a woman suggests a woman could not handle these challenges is…certainly different.
Last weekend, ABC News President Kim Godwin stepped down after three years of controversy at the helm of the news division. There have been years of discord in the employee ranks, and it was found she fired several prominent positions without replacements for long periods. She was a mess, and though valid to want her removed, the executives were stuck due to racial sensitivities.
Disney, Woke Culture, and the Problem With Firing Embattled News Division President, Kim Godwinhttps://t.co/IO2YVFwxWz
— RedState (@RedState) May 10, 2024
Despite a list of reasons to fire Godwin, here we have Liz Elting of Forbes saying it is unfair that Godwin was hired…um, when she was hired, and that several outside influences were not her fault. This, somehow, involves ALL women.
Liz does not seem to grasp that those influences – the pandemic, inflation, and news industry challenges – affect all news division presidents, so she is implying that women specifically cannot handle these challenges. Also, she seems unaware that the executive placed in power above Godwin, who ultimately fired her and took over her role, is...a woman.
In my latest @Forbes article, I unpack the story of Kim Godwin, the first Black woman to lead a broadcast news division, and her recent departure from ABC. During her tumultuous three-year tenure as president, Godwin faced challenges that reflect a troubling phenomenon known as… pic.twitter.com/6DAnlFsKWo
— Liz Elting (@LizElting) May 9, 2024
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – CBS NEWS
For reasons ridiculous and rather totalitarian, many in the press are content to push the agenda onto us that we should commence with eating insects for protein. They struggle with this concept, though, as they will report on the prospect of consuming bugs, then declare it is a right-wing conspiracy that people want the public to do so, and then go back to promoting the idea.
With cicadas emerging these days, CBS News comes out to offer recipes for eating these critters, describing the experience of consuming them to be a "treat."
The insects, which only come out of the ground every 13 or 17 years, can be a valuable source of food. In many areas of the world, eating insects is a staple.
Someone should alert CBS News to which area of the world we live in, where we have other staples, such as beef, pork, chicken, and fish.
You deserve a treat – and this spring, Mother Nature is providing a seemingly endless supply. Here are some cicada recipes to try. https://t.co/jXRt3pBh6Y
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 10, 2024
