"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.)
02.18.22
Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN
The desperation in the media to defend the Biden administration over the HHS proposal to provide “safe smoking kits” to drug users continues. The most telling aspect was HHS having to make the announcement the agency was pulling the items from distribution.
Now CNN attempts to deflect the accusation that Biden was providing crack pipes, by resorting to the failed Glenn Kessler “correction” we covered earlier this week. Splitting definitions (it’s drug paraphernalia, not crack pipes) and resorting to broadening terms (the kits are not used for JUST crack cocaine) is where the media is left with this farce.
- However, an investigation by the Washington Post of the email exchange between the author of the article and the agency spokesperson found that the spokesperson did not specify that pipes would be included, only that the kits would be intended to help users of any illicit substance, including crack, reduce risk while smoking.
Facts First: It's not true that tax dollars are currently being used for a "crack pipe fund." https://t.co/s1Z9mvwTAP
— CNN (@CNN) February 18, 2022
News Avoidance Syndrome – CNN
To say that Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy are addicted to Fox News coverage is to traffic in understatement. Often times the way they cover news items is to report about how Fox is reporting on it. That is why it was with much amusement the latest Reliable Sources newsletter was read - and laughed at.
Darcy, taking over the role of writing the post, detailed that Fox was currently obsessed with Hilllary Clinton, due to the revelation from the Durham investigation. Darcy – suggests that Fox was the obsessed party. Not helping his cause was the fact that he made this the opening segment of the news letter, complete with blaring headline.
Hillary Clinton was mentioned nearly 200 times on Fox’s air Thursday, per a search of rush TV transcripts. Jesse Watters and Tucker Carlson hyped her as a potential 2024 candidate, while Sean Hannity dared her to sue the network. More in @ReliableSources: https://t.co/HisPluGgBd pic.twitter.com/aRgqDCipgv
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 18, 2022
Reporting On The Mirror – CNN
Not helping Darcy’s desperate deflection from addiction of Fox, the announcement came down that the new streaming entity CNN+ will have a docu-series about the Rupert Murdoch clan. So after numerous years of news featuring the clan, as well as a motion picture, books, and the dramatic series “Succession”, CNN feels as if there is a void in the coverage of this family behind Fox News.
So, CNN will just continue with its coverage of Fox News.
— Brad Slager - Aluminum Medalist 12oz Curling Team (@MartiniShark) February 17, 2022
How...novel of them... https://t.co/u0hh8YOgy6
Anti-Social Media – CNN
How many people are actually aware that the news network provides specifically tailored coverage that is designed to be played in middle and high school classrooms?
Many were aware that CNN used to have contracts with airports across the country to have the network broadcast in terminals to the captive audiences waiting for their flights. In similar fashion schools have the chance to play a watered-down version of the news for the developing minds of students.
One school in Pennsylvania has pulled the plug on this program.
The Norwin School District of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, voted 5-4 to remove @CNN10 as a mandatory broadcast from homeroom periods in its middle schools.
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 16, 2022
https://t.co/1e6n17hAjH
Body Checking The Fact Checkers – CNN
Funny how this is not considered voter suppression any longer.
The resident fact-checker at CNN took time off from covering the truckers’ protest from his home country to turn his attention to what is perceived to be some voting misinformation regarding Wisconsin. Apparently there is a claim floating about that the state has vastly more voting registrations than there are adults of the legal age to vote, but Daniel clears this detail up with little more than a shrug.
This "Wisconsin has 7.1M voter registrations" thing is dishonest. As @TheDispatchFC points out (https://t.co/Jqw8gREeEd), Wisconsin has about 3.5M active registered voters. The only way to get over 7 million is to add in *inactive* registrations, which don't let people vote. pic.twitter.com/Fh35zTfgtw
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 17, 2022
Of note here is that what Dale is dismissing as a nothing burger is the very thing the state of Georgia addressed years ago. When that state was cleaning up its voting rolls of these dormant registrations it was said to be a hostile attack on voting rights that disenfranchised minorities and led to Stacey Abrams losing out on the governor’s race. Today, to take these inactive accounts as legitimate – as Abrams has done and continues to do so – is to traffic in misinformation.
