"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.
12.23.21
Legalized Press-titution – POLITICO
For reasons that make sense only to writer Ruby Cramer and the editors at Politico, we get served a lengthy holiday dose of treacle concerning the disgraced former news fixture Michael Avenatti. Facing numerous lawsuits and reduced to house arrest following a few months of solitary in New York, the media darling is toiling in an apartment, reduced to working on legal documents for his own defense.
Cramer, in her doting interview, fails to recognize that in featuring his attributes, they reflect poorly on the press, and in noting his numerous foibles, the journalism outlets that gave him a platform become likewise implicated.
Recommended
- "This Michael Avenatti doesn't exist anymore. That much is evident when you sit across from him in this small backyard, miles from the nearest green room. I spent several days this fall interviewing Avenatti about his role in a national moment — nine months in front of the camera — that feels as distant as it does unresolved."
Please. The fawning over this man is still in place, even after he has become a completely disgraced lawyer and proven to be the celebrity whore many declared him to be. And the press cannot stand to be without him.
- "He helped create the binary media environment of the Trump era — but as he falls, eyeing the uncertain landing ahead, he is now desperate to be seen as a figure of complexity."
Just stop. Seriously, you are embarrassing yourself.
The best part of this feature is that Avenatti has been stripped of his technology and banned from the web, and he is reduced to using a Jitterbug flip phone.
This is a beautifully-written feature ... and an example of how chummy the media and Avenatti still are. What other convicted extortionist and accused embezzler would get such a glam-up? https://t.co/CIg9TlbOVz
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) December 23, 2021
Reporting on the Mirror – WASHINGTON POST
At the Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan has an interesting column where she features one of their health reporters, Dan Diamond, who is essentially their Covid reporter. It is a result of Diamond writing a Facebook post concerning the new Omicron variant that ended up going viral.
- "Through two years of covid, Dan Diamond had written it all before. But a new way of talking about the new variant connected with a confused and jaded readership."
That "new way" of approaching the topic – he simply talked about it in a lucid, sober fashion. It went on to become an article in the Post. He distilled his prior conversations with family members into a simple but straightforward fashion without resorting to hysteria and accusatory lectures.
- "The frustrating thing for Diamond about his post's popularity? Literally all of the information he shared had already been well covered in multiple news stories, by The Washington Post and many other news organizations. But, apparently, it was the form of his Facebook message — and its conversational tone — that made a difference."
This is what is so revealing in the feature – Sullivan seems surprised that people actually responded to a piece that was a calm assessment of the virus and did not involve telling people they were stupid or their behavior was going to lead to superspreader events and death. Huh, who knew?
The backstory, from me, on ?that ?@ddiamond? Facebook post about omicron that you probably saw a few days ago https://t.co/IeiMki3rBh
— ?? Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) December 22, 2021
News Avoidance Syndrome – MIAMI HERALD
Recall how back at the end of summer, all we heard from Florida was how infected the state was and how Governor Ron DeSantis was intent on killing residents? For at least three months, there has been little to see, it seems. But suddenly, it is once again sound-the-alarm time!
Florida COVID update: Largest single-day increase since August as 20,194 more cases reported https://t.co/tJCSO4OBQ6
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) December 23, 2021
Also, since August 20, there has been little reported about Covid in the state. Since then, Florida had been near the bottom of states in case rates. Also underreported in that time frame were the spikes in cases in states in the Northeast with high vaccination rates. But as the entire country is beginning to see increases as a result of the Omicron variant spreading, Florida is reported like it is an outlier, once again.
Anti-Social Media – NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
On the Disney+ platform, there have been plenty of accolades for the musical documentary "Get Back." It is footage of the Beatles in their prime during recording sessions where you witness the creative activity and all the interactions within the band in a deeply revealing exploration of their process. It has been raved about and cheered by many in the media.
So, of course, NPR has to arrive and crap all over the festivities. They attempt to demean any and all that they can by straining to inject their adherence to modern woke sensibilities into the rock genre.
- "The term 'band guy' is problematic, though, isn't it? In 2021 it's as common for women, trans and nonbinary people to jump into rock's timestream as it is for men. Yet something continues to infuse the rock mythos with the sweaty-socks scent of conventional if boyish, masculinity. Whiteness, too."
I'm looking forward to more entries in this series arriving.
- "Why are whites so under-represented in rap?"
- "The intolerance toward vocalists in the instrumental genre is toxic."
- "The xenophobia in Mariachi music needs to end."
Blue-anon – LOS ANGELES TIMES
The Times' TV critic Lorraine Ali makes the lamest of attempts to impugn Fox News, and conservative media in general, for creating a crisis for our democracy. This is being done, allegedly, because on the Right, all the anxiety and hysterics are all very exciting characteristics.
- "The long-haul chaos culminated in 2021, exhausting traditional newsgathering organizations while energizing the far-right media. Fox News, social media juggernaut Facebook and a constellation of hard-right outlets reveled in the fear of uncertain times, sowing doubt among their followers about the election outcome, vaccinations and the alarming wokeness of 'Sesame Street.'"
Understand, they are somehow reveling in fear by not promoting vaccines, by downplaying the Capitol riot, and not taking medical advice from puppets. The rest of the media, therefore, is NOT trafficking in fear when they hype every virus advancement, spend an entire year declaring a riot to be the worst thing to ever transpire in this country, and stipulating that any political policy they disagree with is going to – as the headline alludes – bring about the end of our democracy.
The crisis of democracy is a media crisis. And the mainstream press is losing https://t.co/BFd9YvJS19
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 23, 2021
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – PIONEER PRESS
- "The $27,400 lighting display, which went up in late November, had to be reduced and reconfigured this year because the Mears Park squirrels tend to chew through the wires, which are coated with polylactic acid, an apparently tantalizing derivative of corn sugar."
Squirrels of St. Paul’s Mears Park force a subtler holiday lighting display https://t.co/m1l5yNyEUl pic.twitter.com/KIMIiRioHP
— Pioneer Press (@PioneerPress) December 21, 2021
