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CNN Corrects Its Correction

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Mar 15, 2024
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03.15.24

Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN

  • There’s no meat, but he will not relinquish that bone.

We covered yesterday how Jake Tapper had a deeply questionable, zero-impact report on New York Jets quarterback and short-list denizen on Robert Kennedy Jr.’s potential VP list, Aaron Rodgers. Tapper cited a CNN hostess and an anonymous corroborator saying Rodgers had questioned the veracity of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, based on things possibly spoken by Rodgers – nearly 11 years ago. The importance of this story is a mystery, and the sourcing is deeply questionable.

Yet, even as Rodgers has come forward to completely refute the claims — not only declaring his belief in the reality but also stating he is on the record years back attesting to it — Tapper refuses to concede the position. He posted the message from Rodgers denying this claim on screen even, but then goes on to say that the NFL star had not denied the story.

This is really an odd and confounding hill for Tapper to lay siege upon.

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Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • Is this following the science, or are we not doing that any longer?

In Florida, the press says residents are enduring a pandemic. If this comes as a surprise to you, imagine how we here at RFTH feel — we live here and completely missed it! 

There is a collective freakout from news outlets not situated in the state about an explosive freakout of measles, with claims of a sweeping contagion being brought on by incompetent state leaders and an ineffectual Surgeon General. One…small…problem…

The number of incidents has been in the single digits, confined to one county, and the last reported case was last month. But this has not deterred the media from hysterically pointing at Florida – as a means of distracting from higher numbers of cases taking place among the housed immigrants in the Chicagoland area.

First Amendment Strike Force – THE WHITE HOUSE

  • What the hell are the press members doing here at this press conference?!

Yesterday, it was an odd but telling scene when a photo-op saw President Biden asking if he could take a few questions from the media, and immediately his handlers jumped in to usher away the press before anything could be asked.

That scene was repeated today, when one question managed to be asked, and it was damaging. At the conclusion of another scripted appearance, one reporter quickly asked about the comments that Sen. Chuck Schumer gave talking about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interfering with peace, and Biden praised it. The handlers once again sprung into action, starting to herd the reporters out, loudly directing them to leave so the other shouted questions could not be heard by Biden, and more importantly could not be answered.

Gilded Reframe – CNN

  • Amusing to see them correcting the charges that Katie Britt was incorrect.

Since she had been tabbed to give the State of the Union rebuttal speech last week, in the press, Alabama Senator Katie Britt has been Media Enemy #...well, she is at least on the top-10. CNN has joined in the fray, delivering an attempt to disqualify the budding senatorial star by delivering a contrary personality piece about one of the subjects of Britt’s speech. We think.

What CNN wanted was to discredit Britt when she was discussing the effects of the human trafficking trade in relation to the border crisis. The network brought on the woman Britt was discussing in her speech, Karla Jacinto, and then things became uncomfortable for CNN.

CNN first contends Britt used Jacinto's story without permission, even though Britt never mentioned her by name in her rebuttal. The following report contended that Britt falsely said the woman was brought over by drug cartels (something Britt did not say) and that Britt claimed to say the woman was victimized due to Biden’s policies. Britt clearly said that she was at the border last year and the woman she spoke with was being trafficked back when she was a 12-year-old. 

CNN also disputed that Britt ever met the woman, but not only are there photos Britt has posted of the two women sharing a hug, there is more. Jacinto has confirmed she was on a panel discussion with a number of politicians, including Britt. 

CNN has issued a correction to its correction of Britt:

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify the circumstances of Britt’s meeting with Jacinto.

News Avoidance Syndrome – ABC NEWS

  • So you are versed on bullying, just not on research.

The case of the death of the non-binary Oklahoma high school student Nex Benedict continues to be a bother for many in the press. Mary Alice Parks of ABC News is certainly one of those bothered. First, as she is clinging to the debunked aspect of bullying behind this case, she seems perfectly comfortable bullying herself, describing that she “confronted” and “pushed” a politician for answers. But as she expresses a certain outrage with this story, Parks has not done the proper work.

Benedict was not bullied over being trans (as Nex identified as non-binary) and the confrontation was instigated by Benedict after a group was mocked over other things. As the facts have consistently derailed the narrative, we are to the point that any journalist still clinging to that story that this was a hate-crime-induced death are lying or simply incapable of doing their job. 

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"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature covering the nation's deeply flawed aspects of journalism, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.