"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.)
12.09.21
Prose & Contradiction – WASHINGTON POST
The journalists are still pretending to be outraged that on Fox News, Lara Logan dared to suggest Dr. Anthony Fauci has commonalities with Dr. Mengele. That anyone in the press pretends to be aghast after years of automatic Nazi comparisons involving Republicans is too pathetic to even be amusing.
Today at the Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan burns plenty of column inches disparaging Logan and specifically Fox News for not taking action of issuing an apology for the allegedly tasteless comparison. We have yet to see anywhere in Maggie's archives at the Washington Post where she expressed a similar outrage to another Nazi political slam made in the press.
It’s not wrong to compare Trump’s America to the Holocaust. Here’s why. https://t.co/I5YaDNomXh by @waitmanb
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) July 16, 2018
Pre-Written Field Reports – SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
In Broward County, Florida, there was just a special election for a congressional seat decided by the narrowest of margins – just five votes. It has been discovered that since the election, nearly 300 ballots were found undelivered at the regional post office. Considering the problem with a local election mail-in ballot issues, the newspaper decided they knew where the blame resides – with Governor Ron DeSantis.
- "DeSantis' chief elections officer, Secretary of State Laurel Lee, should demand a complete report on the lost ballots from the Postal Service, but mostly all we hear on this subject from Tallahassee is silence. That's because Republicans don't really want every vote to count."
Making this all the more asinine is that this was a Democratic Party primary election in a deeply blue county, and the Supervisor of Elections there is a Democrat, dealing with a problem caused by the post office. Blaming DeSantis is as desperate a deflection as we may find.
Stealth Story Evolution – CNN
- The effort to pass off blame manages to make CNN leadership more inept.
The Chris Cuomo fallout continues for CNN, and the more they address the issue, the more it seems they should stop talking. First, Oliver Darcy references a town hall held by Jeff Zucker for CNN employees about the matter, but Darcy sounds like he is from another outlet, as he references quotes by Zucker as told by The Wall Street Journal.
As for Zucker's comments, he tries to make him and his network look like they were taken by surprise at the recent revelations of Cuomo's activities. This means a news network had been incapable of finding out news about one of its own employees. Then he says something quite amazing.
- "Mr. Zucker also said he wished Chris Cuomo had taken a leave of absence in May when allegations that he participated in strategy sessions with his brother first surfaced."
This is as ineffectual as an executive can sound. Zucker hoped his misbehaving pundit would take a self-corrective step instead of having to level punishment himself. This makes the CEO sound like a neutered hamster on this entire matter.
Jeff Zucker's New Remarks Point to the Disarray at CNN Leading to Chris Cuomo Debacle
— RedState (@RedState) December 9, 2021
https://t.co/7UKvx7qmBT
Presentation Paradox – TIME MAGAZINE
Not to diminish what she went through and the challenges faced, but for Time to declare its Athlete of the Year honor going to an athlete who did not even compete is…something different.
Meanwhile, one of her replacements on the team - Sunisa Lee – went on to win an individual gold medal.
Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) is TIME's 2021 Athlete of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/yz9BkuDnto pic.twitter.com/y4FhB0HxAA
— TIME (@TIME) December 9, 2021
Blue-Anon – FINANCIAL TIMES
- Honoring the anniversary of things not taking place.
This is a perfect illustration of how desperate the media is to keep the conspiracy theory dangers at the forefront in order to keep trying to score political hits. This time, they find a reason to revisit Q-anon once again, this time by acknowledging it has been one year since there has been a Q post.
A year ago today, QAnon made their final post - I spoke to @PokerPolitics @AnnieKNK @Leparisdechine @aoifegall @TheOndrakGuy @JordanWildon @ixisnox about the state of the movement today, and what lessons we can glean from the super-conspiracy. https://t.co/i16rlQIjFf
— Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan (@SVR13) December 8, 2021
