Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage on the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation. We'll look to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.
08.10.21 (Update)
Presentation Paradox – WASHINGTON POST
- You get the feeling she is cutting his face out of all her photographs.
One of the amusingly odd things to see the past few years – more like bemusingly odd – has been Jennifer Rubin's adoration for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Moving beyond his myriad scandals, which would invalidate most praise from those but the most partisan of sorts, it is extremely incongruous for someone who is purportedly conservative to harbor such a laser-focus affection for a Democrat. Charles Cooke spent much of today retweeting Jenn's past odes to the man, an embarrassing collection if she were capable of such an emotion.
But interestingly, the very moment her crush steps down in the face of glaring evidence, she has a distinctly different approach to things.
Recommended
the first NY woman governor EVER
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) August 10, 2021
Hoax & Change – CNN
There should be a lesson in this about getting entwined with Rep. Cori Bush. Last week, the network featured an interview with a resident in North Las Vegas who was out of work, and with her three children beside her, she expressed her anxiety over whether the eviction moratorium would be extended. All of this should be followed by "allegedly."
Bush lobbied on behalf of the woman, and a GoFundMe account was established, raising over $200,000. Then the truth came out.
It was later learned the children were not her own and that her ability to find work was far greater than sold.
- Update: After CNN aired a story about her potential eviction, Dasha Kelly clarified to CNN that she is not the mother of the three children featured in the story. CNN has verified she takes care of the children in her home for periods of time. She says she originally described herself to CNN as a mother because she considers herself to be like one to them.
So the network that loves to scorch others over false reports could not be bothered to do basic journalism before airing this segment.
Legalized Press-titution – NBC NEWS
- You people not getting vaccinated are impacting the parties of the Democratic elites.
News Policy Editor Benjy Sarlin has a deep soft spot for the plight of the privileged in the Democratic Party for having to endure criticism each time they are exposed violating their own health mandates. It is just not fair that Obama's birthday and Rashida Tlaib's wedding party this weekend were trotted out on social media, delivering harsh words toward the revelers. Sarlin looks to the unvaccinated as the cause.
- "They're doing this because they LIKE lockdowns" has led to innumerable bad takes for months; now it's leading people to miss how angry vaccinated people are at unvaccinated for forcing a return to precautions on their behalf.
Pretty revealing where his heart resides when he has little scorn for those in power, who cannot seem to find a way to follow their own mandates on the populace. The problem, according to Sarlin, is with those desiring the same liberty impacting the catered affairs of the elites.
There’s been a recent focus on “Look at this politician doing fun indoor stuff!” And sure, fair enough. What it’s missing is those politicians are presumably like lots of people incandescent with rage their weddings/birthdays/reunions are being marred by other people’s decisions.
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) August 10, 2021
Prose & Contradiction – CNN
On "New Day," the morning crew took a curious view toward the surging Covid numbers. Curiously, only based on prior positions on the matter. They referenced a weekend interview with Dr. Jonathan Reiner where he was pointing out the high case rates in Florida and then made the outrageous suggestion that travel bans might be a good idea.
Instead of laughing this proposal off, hosts Brianna Keilar and John Berman entertained the idea and then tossed the concept at reporter Harry Enten, who also felt this was a concept worth entertaining.
- "So, yeah, these places, Louisiana and Florida, and there are some other states in there as well, they are worse than places in which travelers are mostly banned from," Enten said.
08.10.21 (Original)
Matching Media Memorandum – CNN
- Interesting when they do not cite other sources who provide the data.
You may have noticed that a number of media players have been playing up a similar talking point, that being immigrants are not to blame for the recent surge in Covid cases. The members of the press delivering this are following a script provided by Media Matters that insists there is no data to show immigrants are carting in Covid across the border.
At CNN's "New Day," hostess Brianna Keilar followed along, laying out a version of Republicans Pounce for good measure.
President Biden has a border crisis on his hands - no doubt.
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 9, 2021
But conservatives are capitalizing on it by demonizing immigrants as diseased spreaders of covid - with no facts to back that up. #RollTheTape pic.twitter.com/nmUsbdM5i9
What can be said of a journalist who claims there are no facts to back up a claim when those very not only exist but have been reported by other news outlets apart from those accursed capitalizing-conservative sources? It's kinda-sorta-possibly-maybe the opposite of journalism, Brianna.
We need to be sure that NBC News and Axios are made aware of the reality that they are dispensing fact-free misinformation. https://t.co/AGvluSHR8w pic.twitter.com/8zFtiDyT1k
— Brad Slager - Gold Medal Loser in the Keg Toss (@MartiniShark) August 9, 2021
Pre-Written Field Reports – USA TODAY
- Why apologize when you can always lecture from a position of weakness?
As Julio Rosas covered previously, there was a stupid controversy over the weekend in Major League Baseball. A racial dust storm erupted when a fan was accused of using a racial slur at a game when it was revealed that he was attempting to call over the mascot of the Colorado Rockies, named "Dinger."
That the organization rushed out a public statement condemning racism initially, BEFORE conducting a full investigation, fueled a number of sports journalists to also leap out with their own loud boasts condemning the non-hate-crime. Caught up in the ensuing non-apology correction spiral was USA Today's baseball beat writer, Bob Nightengale.
The #Rockies complete their investigation and find that no slur was used.I sincerely apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusion after the video. Unfortunately, after personally seeing the racism family/friends endure every damn day, it was too easy to believe it happened again https://t.co/g1PaBoKirj
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 9, 2021
An attempt to unravel what this means. He acted in a prejudicial fashion, instead of waiting for facts, but this was because he sees prejudice every day and completely opposes prejudice...which led him to be prejudiced in thinking a slur had been used.
Body Checking The Fact Checkers – POLITIFACT
Our allies over at NewsBusters have reported they have been flagged by the fact gurus over...reposting accurate data from the CDC. At issue was a post that included a graph from the CDC showing hospitalization rates. PolitiFact declares the graph that it acknowledged finding on the CDC site as FALSE because there was a contextual copy not included by NewsBusters.
PolitiFact's issue is that the chart only represents 14 states, but the drop in hospitalizations was from January data – of those same states.
ICYMI: We changed the colors on the CDC's own graph about COVID hospitalizations, and @PolitiFact said we were "partly false." https://t.co/78hFtWeNjB
— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) August 10, 2021
Legalized Press-titution – THE NEW YORK TIMES
There has been an ongoing social debate regarding the large birthday celebration of President Barack Obama held over the weekend. Hundreds were in attendance, and images leaching out from the exclusive event show those attendees without masks. Playing in defense mode on Saturday was reporter Annie Karni, who excused the massive party on Jim Acosta's show.
What has people abuzz, however, was Karni's description of the crowd that attended the 60th Birthday Bash.
- "The controversy was really being overblown. They're following all the safety precautions. People are going to sporting events that are bigger than this. This is going to be safe. This is a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd. This is just about optics; it's not about safety."
Social media latched onto her words, and she was featured in reports on Fox News. This has prompted her paper, The New York Times, to rise up and defend her as not having said what she was quoted and recorded as saying.
- "This is yet another clear example of a bad-faith attack on a journalist. Our reporter’s comments were taken out of context. While Fox didn't start the harassment campaign against our reporter, they willfully amplified it."
So much in this response is telling that they have been caught. Responding to her words is an "attack," and anyone who dares comment and respond to her words is engaged in "harassment." The real tell here is the use of "bad faith," a favorite deflection used by the press when they are exposed.
The deflection is the claim Karni was quoting someone else, except she merely said others on the island said it was overblown, but then she segued to sporting events taking place before uncorking her "sophisticated" line.
"a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd" pic.twitter.com/qzh3glcQTQ
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) August 8, 2021
Presentation Paradox – NBC NEWS
"Well, I'm very concerned, Chuck, that we're going to see another surge related to that rally." So says Dr. Anthony Fauci, referring to the hotly criticized Sturgis Motorcycle Rally taking place in South Dakota. This kind of selective consternation seen from the press and administration officials is driving people away from their messaging.
How can these warnings be taken seriously when these same vaunted minds had no such words of warning about the Lollapalooza Concert held in Chicago with the permission of the Democratic mayor?
WaPo archives turns up nothing about Chicago, Lalapalooza, last week.
— Brad Slager - Gold Medal Loser in the Keg Toss (@MartiniShark) August 7, 2021
Funny how that happens. https://t.co/Cqb66nF4Xu pic.twitter.com/SFx8KF7AcR
But, to be honest, no one in the press is suggesting that the attendees of a bike rally are in any way sophisticated, so, of course, they are at severe risk of being a superspreader.
News Avoidance Syndrome – MSNBC
- He needs to change his title to 'Histrionician.'
Once again, we are revisiting the false claim that Melania Trump took a weed wacker and a backhoe to the White House Rose Garden, rendering it as a faint echo of the glory it once had been.
This time, the error-prone historian Michael Beschloss looks over the garden one year after its renovation and declares things a disaster. Now sure, looking at the expanse of green in the absence of a flowering season would be a base form of propaganda, but how is it that a man who drapes himself in the mantle of being an arbiter of historical fact can call into question the supposed decades of grandeur being erased when it was documented that Melania Trump worked to reinstall the same designs that Jacqueline Kennedy had originally placed in the garden? Partisanship over professionalism is the answer.
Evisceration of White House Rose Garden was completed a year ago this month, and here was the grim result—decades of American history made to disappear: @dougmillsnyt pic.twitter.com/78OqjkoOPt
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 7, 2021
