"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.
10.08.21
Stealth Story Evolution – NEW YORK TIMES
Consider for just a moment how reactive the press gets over anything that can be insinuated as Covid misinformation. It is cause for alarm, leads to accusations, and there are sometimes moves to de-platform individuals. Now, let's look at a case with a recent article in The New York Times written by Apoorva Mandavilli. She has already built up a bit of a problematic reputation in this regard, so this is almost on-brand for her. Recently, she got pertinent facts wrong in a piece on the vaccines, and recall, she was the voice calling the focus on the Wuhan lab leak story racist.
In her piece on European countries issuing Covid vaccines for children, she not only gets a number of key facts wrong, but they are wildly incorrect. For one, she overstated the number of children hospitalized from the virus by a factor of 15. But far worse than that – the entire basis of the article, as described in the headline, was 100-percent incorrect.
Recommended
"- Correction: Oct. 7, 2021
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described actions taken by regulators in Sweden and Denmark. They have halted use of the Moderna vaccine in children; they have not begun offering single doses. The article also misstated the number of Covid hospitalizations in U.S. children. It is more than 63,000 from August 2020 to October 2021, not 900,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, the article misstated the timing of an F.D.A. meeting on authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children. It is later this month, not next week."
The Times buried this lengthy correction well below the article and even under links to other aspects of the paper. This is embarrassingly bad detailing, considering the nations have not even undertaken the claimed process.
Body Checking The Fact Checkers – ASSOCIATED PRESS
It has been one of the more outlandish stories of the past week, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) writing to Joe Biden to have parents who appear at school board meetings and oppose mask mandates or Critical Race Theory to be labeled as domestic terrorists. Seeing all the negative press surrounding this audacious move, the Associated Press decided to step in and perform cleanup duty.
In a fact-check of the story, the AP tries to claim this request was never actually made.
- "CLAIM: The National School Boards Association is asking the Biden administration to label parents who protest school policies domestic terrorists.
AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. The organization — the NSBA, for short — is not asking Biden to label parents who protest at school board meetings as terrorists."
They attempt to make the nuanced distinction that their protesting is not terrorism, but if they turn violent, it is terrorism. Except, no. In the letter sent by the NSBA, it listed items it considered terrorist in nature: "School board meetings have been disrupted in California, Florida, Georgia, and other states because of local directives for mask coverings to protect students and educators from COVID-19. An individual was arrested in Illinois for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct during a school board meeting. During two separate school board meetings in Michigan, an individual yelled a Nazi salute in protest to masking requirements, and another individual prompted the board to call a recess because of opposition to critical race theory."
Contrary to false claims circulating online, the National School Boards Association didn’t ask President Joe Biden to label protesting parents “domestic terrorists,” and there’s no indication Biden or the Justice Department called them terrorists, either. https://t.co/kVflaQKHme
— AP Fact Check (@APFactCheck) October 6, 2021
DNC PR Firm – THE NEW YORK TIMES
More job numbers were released, and, once again, they were surprisingly lower than hoped-for projections.
BREAKING: The September jobs report badly misses expectations with payrolls increasing by just 194,000. https://t.co/qUwqDh64nQ pic.twitter.com/2bzUka3bnl
— CNBC (@CNBC) October 8, 2021
Yet, not to worry – The New York Times is on the case! The Paper of Record is here to let us know that these dismal returns on the promised economic improvement are actually fantastic news! Don't believe us? Just look at all the White House staffers giddily retweeting the report from The Times today!
Great work Neil-
— Brad Slager - Focused On Lasers (@MartiniShark) October 8, 2021
The White House gives you their full support for providing just the right amount of positivity on the dismal numbers released today.
You should be receiving your pass to the WH Halloween party just after this weekend. https://t.co/ws1W6OaL1z pic.twitter.com/noN26i0Izx
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – CNN
If you happen to be one of those bent minds who for some reason has a deep appreciation for horrible movies (full disclosure: this columnist is one of those bent minds), then the movie version of the Broadway musical "Cats" was considered one of the recent classics from that category. Just how bad was the film?!
Well, it affected the creative force behind the stage production serving as the source material. The man who brought to life shows such as "The Phantom of the Opera" saw what they had done to his classic and became affected by the result.
- "Andrew Lloyd Webber says he now has a therapy dog, thanks, in part, to the trauma of the 'Cats' movie."
Andrew Lloyd Webber says he now has a therapy dog, thanks, in part, to the trauma of the "Cats" movie. https://t.co/WUkxXr333D
— CNN (@CNN) October 7, 2021
Pre-Written Field Reports (literally) – C-SPAN
- This is an AG secretary proving his gravitas on the subject matter.
During a meeting on agricultural affairs, politicians were video conferencing to the chambers. Representative Doug LaMalfa was on the Zoom call to ask questions of the secretary of agriculture – from the seat of his combine as he was plowing his fields in California.
CLIP: @RepLaMalfa questions @SecVilsack from a functioning combine harvester in California. pic.twitter.com/Pi3ci6HL5o
— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) October 7, 2021
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – INSIDER LIFE
As someone who has covered Hollywood for years, I still do not grasp the interest in the lives of celebrities, but apparently, this remains a category of interest large enough to keep certain outlets afloat. Case in point, Insider Life. They give us the breaking story on singer Meghan Trainor and the bathroom proclivities between her and her spouse.
Meghan Trainor pooped beside her husband — and relationship experts say that's OK https://t.co/Ue2ZpF7xfZ
— Insider Life (@InsiderLife) October 7, 2021
Expecting journalism ethics from the entertainment publications is, of course, a fruitless endeavor, but would it have been so difficult to reach out to Trainor or her reps and get confirmation on this deeply trenchant story?
In response, the singer has come out with her official statement, clarifying the micturating habits in her home.
To clear things up…we pooped ONCE together and we laughed and said never again…but he will hang out with me if I’m ??ing cuz WE SOULMATES. And i legit miss him when I’m away from him. And we pee together obvi
— Meghan Trainor (@Meghan_Trainor) October 6, 2021
