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.
Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN
- Maybe the Taliban took over from her cameraman...???
For the most part, it has been refreshing to see the bulk of the media landscape be extremely critical of most aspects of the Afghanistan spiral into mayhem. That does not mean there have not been select instances of head-scratching reports. One was provided by CNN's Clarissa Ward, who, understandably, was probably under direct surveillance and needed to check her words.
CNN reporter on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan: “They’re just chanting ‘Death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time.” #Afghanistan #Talibans pic.twitter.com/hYtCBVqeTc
— Sophia Fisher (@sophiabfisher) August 16, 2021
Forgive us if the concept of a "Mostly peaceful call to destroy a nation" rings a bit hollow with us.
Ward does provide for us the quick turnaround in public acceptance of women once the Taliban rolled into power.
Wardrobe change for CNN’s @clarissaward in Afghanistan today pic.twitter.com/99iB4sfkbG
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) August 16, 2021
Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- Picking up on a theme here...
The ever-present media attacks on Ron DeSantis continue unabated, despite the routine failure of these hit jobs. The latest sees the press struggling to accuse the governor of Florida of opposing vaccines. This is a tough sell, considering he has been pushing for vaccinations from the time they were available; some of those failed media hits concerned his efforts to get people vaccinated.
So the press has had to massage the message a bit. See if you can spot the pattern taking place this month.
THE HILL - DeSantis downplays increase in Covid-19 cases
CNN - The one time in recent days that DeSantis talked about the drastic increase in cases, he seemed to downplay it
YAHOO NEWS - Gov. DeSantis Downplays Coronavirus Threat
SUN-SENTINEL - DeSantis promotes COVID-19 treatment, downplays vaccine effectiveness
POLITICO - Florida Covid hospitalizations shatter record as DeSantis downplays threat
USA TODAY - DeSantis downplays COVID concerns
NEWSWEEK - Ron DeSantis downplays the outbreaks severity
DAILY MAIL - He also appeared to downplay Covid hospitalizations in his state
ORLANDO SENTINEL - Desantis promotes Covid-19 treatment, downplays vaccine
NEWS 4 JACKSONVILLE - Florida's governor again downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic
Reporting On The Mirror – CNN
- Saving face in the face of face-palm-inducing actions.
Last night, after a week off to celebrate his birthday, Chris Cuomo made his triumphant return to CNN. At the close of his program, Chris gave about a three-minute statement regarding his brother, deposed governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Chris made a number of declarations, and they did not help his cause, not that of his employer, by allowing him to remain on the air. Just a few of his choice quotes.
- "I'm not an adviser. I'm a brother. I wasn't in control of anything. I was there to listen and offer my take."
We know this is garbage because we saw the New York attorney general report. Chris was directly involved, and then later in this same segment, he went on to say he advised his brother to resign.
- "My position has never changed. I never misled anyone about the information I was delivering or not delivering on this program."
More garbage. He never came forward to state he was part of the strategy calls with the governor's office until it was exposed. Further, in February, when the scandals first broke, Chris was actually writing the copy his brother's office used, and then days later, announced on air he was not commenting on the scandal. He never revealed that he wrote their PR copy. That was only exposed in the report.
- On Andrew Cuomo's appearances last year: "Those would be short-lived. And they were. The last was over a year ago, long before any kind of scandal."
This does not make them ethically correct. Andrew was promoted on those interviews, and his image burnished. They led to a promoted campaign, positive press coverage, and book sales.
"It was a unique situation being a brother to a politician in a scandal and being part of the media," @ChrisCuomo says. "I tried to do the right thing, and I just want you-all to know that." https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1427450474400296963/video/1…
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 17, 2021
Pre-Written Field Reports – POLITICO
In a rather boilerplate report on the state spending on security in a fiscal year, there was an odd note about what the state of Florida did NOT shell out for in the past year. In the list of national and international officials who required state-funded protection, there was this side note, for some reason:
- Florida did not spend any money providing security for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's much-scrutinized March trip to the state.
Reporting On The Mirror – THE NEW YORK TIMES
It was a comical episode this past March when Tucker Carlson did a segment reporting on The New York Times social media reporter Taylor Lorenz. In calling out her methods of attempting to cancel people on social media platforms, media outrage swirled as reporters and others accused Carlson of attacking Lorenz. Bafflingly, the biggest offense alleged was that Carlson endangered her by using her name and photo in his video segment.
This was laughable because she does not report anonymously, and the photo he used was the picture she uses at The Times in her bio. What is notable is the hysterics were meant to distract away from the charges of her online behavior bordering on abuse. Well, that is coming to light now, as an agent for a number of TikTok personalities is suing the paper and Lorenz for $6.2 million for defamation as a result of one of her articles.
NY Times, reporter Taylor Lorenz sued for defamation by TikTok agent https://t.co/umdNvxhZk9 pic.twitter.com/QoadwqC6tI
— New York Post (@nypost) August 16, 2021
