"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.
11.01.21
Stealth Story Evolution – USA TODAY
In the deeply unwoke World Series, the Houston Antivaxxeers are playing the Atlanta Votekillers, and the sports media needs to be upset. At USA Today, their beat ball reporter Bob Nightengale had to get his virtue credentials in place, so he made a bold declaration:
- "In recent years, I have tried to avoid using Atlanta's nickname in columns. I find it offensive, and after talking and listening to Native American leaders, friends and associates, it only fortifies my belief."
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Okay, well and good – if only this were accurate. He said it has been years that he has held this stance, except he has been found to have used the name Braves in past columns. Filtering through his archive, one was cherry-picked...from this past Sunday.
When others began noting how he has frequently been seen employing the offensive nickname, a bit of revisionism took place. His recent work was found to be altered to reflect his long-held stance.
He wrote a column on Oct. 18 with multiple references to the "Braves". On Oct. 25, someone scrubbed all those words and changed them to "Atlanta". pic.twitter.com/20jDNeMClp
— Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) October 28, 2021
While they are busy revising his work history to match his claims, Bob will not be able to pass off any offensive use of Braves to his editors on his Twitter feed. Some deletions will be in order to have his account comport with his years of activism.
''I've avoided using the name Braves for years'', says the writer using the name Braves all season long. pic.twitter.com/zdX5V5xFHZ
— Brad Slager - Gourd Of Thunder (@MartiniShark) October 29, 2021
News Avoidance Syndrome – WASHINGTON POST
Glenn Kessler has displayed just how painful it can be for a writer in his position these days. After all, with all of these cranks out in the public with access to the internet, they can become bothersome, always bleating about when a fact-checker is not correctly doing his job. The rudeness is just unacceptable!
Kessler truly has been resistant to correct Terry McAuliffe on his numerous misstatements regarding the amount of Covid cases in his state, and at NewsBusters, Tim Graham has shown us just how resistant he has been.
Even the liberal Washington Post's fact-checker was forced to call out Terry McAuliffe for dramatically exaggerating COVID cases among kids. https://t.co/sm0RDKmQBH
— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) October 28, 2021
At times, McAuliffe has been obnoxiously overstating things in his state, at one point declaring that over 1,100 children were in the ICU with Covid, when the accurate total was simple hospitalizations were only 35. Meh, so he was only off by roughly 3,500%. Kessler, though, has displayed how incurious he has been throughout the numerous lies. Look at his response to repeated inquiries to the McAuliffe campaign.
- "It was a slip of the tongue. Okay, we understand that, and so we passed on a fact check."
- "A spokesman said he was referring to the weekend numbers released the day before. We got busy with other stuff and chose not to do a fact check."
- "The McAuliffe campaign said that he simply misspoke. Okay, we moved on."
- "We can understand the occasional misspeak, especially in the heat of a campaign. Moreover, as readers know, we generally do not award Pinocchios when a politician admits error."
Fact Checker: Terry McAuliffe keeps inflating coronavirus numbers https://t.co/B8UY7jKU4y
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 26, 2021
Blue-Anon – NBC 29 CHARLOTTESVILLE
- The diversity of these supremacists is impressive.
That sound you have been hearing is the laughter throughout the internet at the blatantly staged effort to portray a group of alleged Glenn Youngkin supporters as racists. A handful of goobers arrived at a Youngkin campaign stop, dressed in khakis and brandishing tiki torches, reflective of the infamous supremacist rally years ago.
The obvious staging of this by McAuliffe operatives displays how desperate the campaign has become – and some of the local coverage displays how in-the-tank the affiliates are for Terry.
One local reporter dutifully sent out the message of these troubling members of society arriving at the event.
These men approached @GlennYoungkin’s bus as it pulled up saying what sounded like, “We’re all in for Glenn.” Here they are standing in front of the bus as his campaign event at Guadalajara started.@NBC29 pic.twitter.com/l681ejyBjc
— Elizabeth Holmes (@holmes_reports) October 29, 2021
You get a real sense of the intrepid reporting on display by the severe lack of interviews, origins, or even names. There is also the small matter of 40% of the gang not fitting into the formula of racial purity males being in the movement.
Curious how you would describe these individuals?
— Brad Slager - Gourd Of Thunder (@MartiniShark) October 29, 2021
White? Men? https://t.co/18jmIki1Rw pic.twitter.com/f8zkCjZMut
Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN
Maybe it is us. Maybe we are just out of touch, adhering to old-school-type standards with the press and following traditional journalism practices, such as actually consuming content on which we are delivering commentary. For CNN's media expert Brian Stelter, this is not a standard needing to be adhered to.
Brian had some caustic commentary on the new series that Tucker Carlson has concerning some misconstrued facts about the January 6 riot on the Capitol.
- "It's all deranged stuff that belongs in a dark corner on the web. It really is indistinguishable from the type of material that fringe right-wing characters like Alex Jones and The Gateway Pundit serve up to their audiences."
My, Brian sure seems worked up about this. Just imagine how much more excitable he may become once he finally is able to watch Carlson's special, not coming out until next week.
Rupert's culpability, plus much more in the latest edition of @ReliableSources, created by @oliverdarcy: https://t.co/tB19LegqhM
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 29, 2021
DNC PR Firm – POLITICO
The Virginia governor's race comes to a head tomorrow, and Glenn Youngkin's challenge has become significant enough to cause all kinds of turmoil in the McAuliffe campaign. And in the press.
Politico seems to be doing their part to help the floundering Terry, as they covered how Donald Trump can possibly be tied to Youngkin. This is done based on the fact that Trump will not be making a campaign stop on behalf of the GOP candidate. You can get a real feel for the disappointment by the writers, and the desperation behind the attempt, as the article spends over 1,100 words to describe something that is not happening.
Trump suggests he might drop a bomb on the Va. gov race. Then leaves. https://t.co/oSuzIZc7vF via @politico
— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) October 28, 2021
Both Kinds of Standards – CNN
It was with genuine amusement that this portion of the "Reliable Sources" newsletter was read. Legitimately causing laughter. The last edition was filled with Fox News content because there is nothing else happening in the world or across the media landscape. The justification was that Rupert Murdoch just turned 90 years old, and he dared to have a birthday party to celebrate.
CNN apparently feels as if this is not proper behavior. After all, look at the network he created! Birthdays are unseemly for someone like that!
CNN's media consultant, Brian Lowry, was asked to contribute to the diatribe last night, and his impression of Murdoch's legacy is...something.
- "The excesses at Fox speak to a lot of things – including an unwillingness to exercise authority over top talent."
He wrote that. The guy working at CNN, where Chris Cuomo runs around untethered and unpunished, and where the sexual deviant Jeffrey Toobin still is allowed on the air, actually wrote those words.
