"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. (For a VIP discount, drop SLAGER in the signup form.)
12.06.21
Low Octane Gas Lighting – THE NEW YORK TIMES
No one is going to suggest Paul Krugman is anything but a partisan blathering mouthpiece. But what is the actual surprise is that people still insist he is something of a deep thinker. While they will note he won a Nobel Prize, that has become less of a point of praise for the man than it is more of an indicator of the flaws in that trophy.
His latest sees him delivering a column where he is deeply upset at the Republicans in D.C. for not embracing the full-on governmental takeover of our lives. This is said to be in the name of public Covid safety.
- "Republican politicians now act like apparatchiks in an authoritarian regime, competing to take ever more extreme positions as a way to demonstrate their loyalty to the cause — and to The Leader. Catering to anti-vaccine hysteria, doing all they can to keep the pandemic going, has become something Republicans do to remain in good standing within the party."
This is his position: They are pushing an authoritarian regime by not forcing mandates. Not sure how that works, but then I am not nearly as brilliant as Paul Krugman.
“What has Republicans so exercised that they’re willing to endanger both the functioning of our government and the nation’s financial stability?” @paulkrugman asks. “The proposition that even duly elected Democrats have no legitimate right to govern.” https://t.co/KzqQF7apDR
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 3, 2021
Pathological Media Amnesia – CNN
- Brian Stelter disapproves of anyone in the media using Nazi references who are not on his program!
In case you missed the faux outrage at the close of the week, many in the press were aghast that on Fox News, Lara Logan dared insult the media patron saint, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Logan made the unforgivable comparison of Fauci to Dr. Mengele, and the press lost their collective minds. It is like they had zero concept of the repeated Nazi/Hitler/SS/fascist descriptions used on Trump and Republicans for the past four years.
Most laughable of the lot was Brian Stelter, who was desperate to discuss anything but Chris Cuomo's demise.
Fauci also said it's striking "how she gets no discipline whatsoever from the Fox network. How they can let her say that with no comment and no disciplinary action. I'm astounded by that..." https://t.co/2WK83RBl6S
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 3, 2021
Understand now; Brian resents anyone who uses this kind of Nazi imagery to make a political point – unless they are a guest on his "Reliable Sources" program.
This is par for the course on Stelter’s show though. Remember this guest?
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) July 25, 2021
Psychiatrist to CNN's Stelter: Trump 'may be responsible for many more million deaths' than Hitler, Stalin, Maohttps://t.co/ofezoDXVRT
Legalized Press-tiution – WASHINGTON POST
Dana Milbank scorches his brethren in the press in his desperate piece of…well, it was in a newspaper, so it must be "journalism." His Sunday column takes the press to task for Joe Biden's horrible approval numbers, and he goes on to claim the media is treating Biden worse than they did Donald Trump. I know, I know – but that's what the man wrote.
He claims to have hard data that illustrates this occurrence, a slanted non-scientific method of measuring certain words that Milbanks describes; Using algorithms that give weight to certain adjectives based on their placement in the story.
The best is he even supplies a chart that shows when Biden's early year glowing praise crossed the axis to supposedly go lower than Trump's coverage. That Dana tries to elide this took place at exactly the moment this summer when Biden's Afghanistan exit blew up on television screens is no surprise.
The most revealing is what Milbank does not say. He alludes repeatedly to lies and false information.
- "Too many journalists are caught in a mindless neutrality between democracy and its saboteurs, between fact and fiction. It's time to take a stand."
What Milbank never manages to produce is the key – he never explains specifically what these lies about Biden are that are supposedly bringing him down.
Opinion by Dana Milbank: The media treats Biden as badly as — or worse than — Trump. Here’s proof. https://t.co/hphdC90M0u
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 4, 2021
DNC PR Firm – CNN/New Day
- The bravery of insisting that you ARE in the tank for the administration.
Dana appeared on CNN's withering morning program "New Day" to discuss his column, and the hostess Brianna Keilar took a position of opposition to the columnist; she defiantly defended that she and her network were, in fact, properly supportive of Biden.
.@washingtonpost columnist Dana @Milbank says the media treats Biden as badly, or worse, than Trump.
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) December 6, 2021
We challenge his case. pic.twitter.com/HJrIqsP4Js
Pathological Media Amnesia: Pt. 2 The Stelter Sequel – CNN
- Brian slams Trump over the very thing he commits on his own show.
Brian really caught him this time! With Joe Biden doing absolutely nothing at all objectionable of late, Stelter focused his laser intensity on the man not in office, catching Donald Trump in that largest of sins – he used a double-negative! This is the kind of thing that can derail a 2024 presidential bid!
Trump's double negative means his latest Big Lie statement is actually true. "Fact-checkers' heads are going to explode," @davidzurawik comments pic.twitter.com/WBe5pAWB6E
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 5, 2021
But, of course, this would not be a Stelter gem if it was not marinating in rampant contradiction. After all, the man has proven himself to be something of an expert on the topic of double-negatives in reference to Trump.
Still laughing at “journalist” Stelter fronting his his hard-hitting Trump Typos “story” by a screen that reads “misspelling errors” instead of spelling errors. pic.twitter.com/8Na8nRPL8k
— Super Journalist (Ret) - JOURN-AL of Skrypton (@Magnum_CK) November 17, 2019
Anti-Social Media – MSNBC
- Again, the passing of a conservative leads to leftist rage.
When Bob Dole passed away this weekend, a number of the prominent figures on the left felt the need to deliver disdain rather than show anything approaching respect. One such was MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who not only displayed his classless nature but also exposed his inability to think critically and instead place EVERYTHING through a single lens.
Yes, the man who lived for a century and had decades of esteemed service to this country, both militarily and politically, could only possibly be summarized by an opinion he uttered in the past years during retirement – He was a Trumper!!!
Bob Dole, who endorsed and voted for Trump twice, and called himself a 'Trumper' as recently as July, has passed away. https://t.co/ez5ZsMmXTx
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 5, 2021
Presentation Paradox – CNN
This was one of the classic cases of a story being so good the press good not resist it – then had to adjust the coverage after the facts were proven inconvenient. Let's face it, hearing that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to form his own state-run military force is just the thing CNN would screech about – hopefully, their readers did not actually, you know, read the whole article.
The headline alone is bad enough - "DeSantis proposes a new civilian military force in Florida that he would control" - but then the outlet had to frame what this meant, as the dastardly conservative is known for directly violating the demands of our benevolent President Biden.
- "But in a nod to the growing tension between Republican states and the Biden administration over the National Guard, DeSantis also said this unit, called the Florida State Guard, would be 'not encumbered by the federal government.' He said this force would give him 'the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible.'"
What CNN ruefully included in their coverage is that this is not in any way a novel decision. Once operational, Florida would, in fact, become the 23rd state to have such a state military force. Huh. Oh, and that alarming headline calling this a new military force? DeSantis will actually be reinstituting the force that was founded in Florida in the 1940s. But those are details that dilute such alarming and sharable headlines on social media, as evidenced by the blue-checks who shared this as an outrage.
WOW: GOP Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis wants to form a personal militia like the "political" leaders in Iraq have. It would be a militia that only answers to him. This is the beginning of a "Red Army" as the GOP prepares for war. Literally. https://t.co/cNsdymLtNz
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) December 3, 2021
