"Riffed from the Headlines" is 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.
09.02.21
Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN
- Will Daniel Dale fact-check his colleague Brian Stelter?
One of the reasons Fox News has seen a rating surge in the weeks concerning the Afghanistan withdrawal is that their news team has risen to the fore with some great work. Jennifer Griffin has lent heft at the Pentagon with her decades of experience in the region, Lara Logan has contributed her empirical wisdom in reports from the area, and many others have been able to make you forget they work at the same place as the primetime pundits.
Brian Stelter, however, has not been impressed. Recently, he was mentioning the outlets who were pulling their news teams from Kabul but stated, "Fox was never there at all." The only thing about this…
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Wonder why @BrianStelter continues to insist FoxNews had no reporters in Kabul. He repeated this again yesterday.
— Brad Slager - Focused On Lasers (@MartiniShark) September 1, 2021
Trey Yingst has been reporting from the airport, and then Qatar post-withdrawal. https://t.co/JILsfEKEya pic.twitter.com/8RTZeJR0Rf
Now, there is a possibility of some wiggle room here for Stelter. It does seem possible that Trey Yingst was inserted the day after Brian's tweet. However, it was more than a week later when, in his "Reliable Sources" newsletter, Stelter was selling the implication Fox was avoiding the true news of the events, and he was still repeating this canard.
- "Fox didn't have any reporters in Afghanistan when Kabul fell to the Taliban, but Fox loyalists 'knew' not to trust the national news outlets that actually did have journalists in harm's way covering the story."
Body Checking The Fact Checkers – WASHINGTON POST
Glenn Kessler has really been one to suffer these past few weeks as Joe Biden has been pummeled by his grotesque fumbling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Kessler adores Joe, and he has valiantly – though oftentimes futilely – worked to prop up the image and character of the president.
In his latest, he decided to just burp out the "official" numbers from the administration. He offers no corrective commentary about there being over 100 Americans left behind or the sheer number of the Afghan allies who have been left behind. These were promises made by Biden to evacuate those particular groups. No need to check on that fact, though. Right, Glenn?
New #FactChecker --> The Afghan evacuation and the war — by the numbers https://t.co/8CXqAK2x9j
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 2, 2021
Low Octane Gas Lighting – NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
The news complex is currently losing its mind over the news that podcast mega-celebrity and star of "News Radio" Joe Rogan has tested positive for Covid. This is significant because he is an avowed anti-mandates voice, but now he has come forward to announce he has been largely cured after being administered "a cocktail of unproven medical treatments," which included the controversial Ivermectin. Being the esteemed journalistic institution that it is, NPR had plenty to say about this dire news.
- "Rogan says he took a drug the FDA urges people not to use. That included taking ivermectin, a deworming veterinary drug that is formulated for use in cows and horses. While a version of the drug is sometimes prescribed to people for head lice or skin conditions, the formula for animal use is much more concentrated."
This is so reckless as to be alarming. There is ample evidence out there to show that not only is Ivermectin – a generic that we have prescribed for humans since the 1970s – known and proven safe, the government has even alluded to its effectiveness in battling Covid-19. The astounding thing is that a news outlet like NPR could not be bothered by looking into these researchable facts.
This is a supposedly serious news outlet spewing this nonsense.
— Brad Slager - Focused On Lasers (@MartiniShark) September 2, 2021
- Rogan was treated by his physician.
- The FDA warns you not to take VETERANARY prescriptions.
- Also, as far as Ivermectin being 'unproven', it has been given to humans for decades.
- Also...fun detail https://t.co/hSz0OYYRM6 pic.twitter.com/FBjtMHURfK
Presentation Paradox – WASHINGTON POST
Aaron Blake is really trying to thread a needle with a garden hose as he attempts to pass off responsibility for the debacle in Afghanistan onto prior presidents. It is a curious position to take, given how much selling we have been getting about how masterful this extraction mission has been.
But Blake is reaching back to the George W. Bush administration to come up with deflective quotes that are supposed to blunt the miscues we are still seeing from the current officeholder. He pulls up a quote from Condoleezza Rice where she states the Taliban was all but eliminated. It may seem a poorly aged quote, but a lot has transpired since then – it has been 19 years, after all, Aaron. For instance, another quote elided by Blake would be Barack Obama referring to Al Qaeda as "the JV team" before declaring they too had been "decimated."
But when it comes to quotes, the most pertinent in this episode is one of the most recent.
"The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely."
– President Joe Biden, July 2021
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – WALL STREET JOURNAL
- The corruption behind the McDonald's ice cream breakdown has been exposed.
While it is something of a running punchline that at McDonald's restaurants it is more likely than not to see the McFlurry machine not serviceable, TMZ is here to show this is no laughing matter.
There is talk that this is due to an exclusivity contract with the maker of the machines that only they can do the repairs, but the problem is serious enough that the Federal Trade Commission is now getting involved. Or, you could just go to Wendy's, Burger King, or Chick-fil-A for the frozen treats – dispensed from machines by the same company that never seem to be broken down.
"The FTC reached out to McDonald’s franchisees this summer seeking information on what, exactly, is going on with the broken ice cream machine problem, according to a letter it sent, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, and people familiar with the matter." https://t.co/DjAvzZglk9
— Tarini Parti (@tparti) September 1, 2021
