"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.
03.14.22
Reporting on the Mirror – CNN
We recently covered the tale of Matthew Rosenberg, the New York Times reporter caught on video by Project Veritas slamming the skills of his coworkers and, more importantly, completely debunking the media narrative of the January 6 Capital riot being such a big story. That this contradicted his own coverage of the riot was the most amazing aspect of this exposé.
Well, CNN's Oliver Darcy rides in to defend Rosenberg from…his own words? It is revealing how Darcy has nothing but contempt for PV while pretending The Times has not been an aggressor equally guilty of the actions he condemns.
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- "The videos caused a stir inside NYT due, in part, to the inappropriate comments Rosenberg made about his fellow reporters. But, according to sources I spoke with, it was seen by many NYT journalists as part of a broader harassment and intimidation campaign Project Veritas has waged against the paper for reporting extensively on the inner-workings of the group."
This noble defense of Rosenberg is all the more hilarious when you consider James O'Keefe met him following the recording, and he fully stood by his comments.
While Darcy acknowledges that The Times has conducted their own series of exposés on the group, they are not seen as in the wrong in any fashion. Only Project Veritas is condemned for returning fire. The funny part is the liberal reporting at The Times is considered legitimate journalism, while the conservative reporting is labeled as "harassment." Of course, to arrive at this conclusion, Darcy has to ignore that the "journalists" frequently have to resort to anonymous sources and unnamed inside players to craft their narratives, while Veritas is disparaged for getting Rosenberg to say things with his own words on camera.
.@cnn details the broad harassment and intimidation campaign that Project Veritas has waged against NYTimes reporters who have reported on the inner-workings of the grouphttps://t.co/1d9M0vqzsg
— Katie Benner (@ktbenner) March 12, 2022
Blue Anon – AXIOS
In what has to be considered a hint of desperation, Axios has come out with a report claiming there is a severe rise in white supremacy in Hispanic circles. This is also a heavy serving of convenience, as there is the tendency to see a number of hate crimes that need to be attributed to white nationalism, but were perpetrated by the recent development of "White Hispanics," being labeled in the press, a reality that rose up after the George Zimmerman incident created inconvenient facts to the narrative of a white-on-black shooting.
- "Racism is deeply rooted in Latin American and Caribbean nations, where slavery was common, Tanya K. Hernández, a Fordham University law professor and author of the upcoming book, 'Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias,' told Axios. 'In Latin America, white supremacy is alive and well.'"
For this to hold true, we have to believe that after numerous generations following the end of slavery, only one color of Hispanics has retained racism because it is ingrained in the culture. For that matter, since the Carib Indians were believed to have attacked and eaten the Arawaks, why is cannibalism also not a prevalent trait in Latin Americans?
The rise of white nationalist Hispanics https://t.co/Na9OjQixoV
— Axios (@axios) March 11, 2022
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – ABC NEWS
The press continues to completely lie about the new legislation in Florida that is the Parental Rights in Education bill. Now, ABC News comes out with what they call evidence of the public opposing this bill via their own commissioned push-poll. That is, they pushed people to get them to answer as the network wanted. The question they asked was not framed accurately, to little surprise.
- Would you support or oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school?
This ignores that the law was written to be age-appropriate, stipulating what can be limited for the ages of pre-K through third grade. One additional component; the poll leaned heavily on those from the gay community.
- "This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs' KnowledgePanel® March 11-12, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 622 adults with an oversample of LGBTQ+ respondents."
BREAKING: More than six in 10 Americans oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school, according to a new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/geMEWV551g
— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2022
Legalized Press-titution – CNN
- We now wonder if the copy was directly written by Ron Klain.
On CNN, Alyson Camerota did all she could to be invited to the next White House Christmas bash by echoing every economic talking point from the administration. To bolster her claims, she brought on global economic analyst Rana Foroohar to back her up. The conclusion: Gas prices, inflation, and food prices, which have been on the rise since the day Biden was sworn in over a year ago, are all blamed on Vladamir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which began two weeks ago.
CNN’s @AlisynCamerota: “Many politicians act as though it’s President Biden who caused inflation and he can fix this.”
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 10, 2022
CNN’s @RanaForoohar: “100 percent” Psaki is right that Putin is driving inflation pic.twitter.com/3UaelvuHit
Pounce of Prevention – THE HILL
On the subject of the bad gas prices, those darned Republicans are seizing on the moment.
Republicans seize on rising gas prices amid Ukraine conflict https://t.co/1fmGPGUUF1 pic.twitter.com/hPo8WwcOf8
— The Hill (@thehill) March 13, 2022
Anti-Social Media – MSNBC
- The ever-changing Nazi standard trips up Rachael Maddow and company.
Hitler is a revered figure in the press. Okay, calm down - allow me to explain. Consider in recent times, when members occupying turf to the right of center invoked Nazi imagery – Marjory Taylor Greene, or actress Gina Carano, for example – the press would alight with outrage at their supposed trivializing holocaust atrocities. Now, balance that against four years of a Trump presidency when barely a week could elapse without journalists somewhere drawing Hitler/Nazi/Stasi/Fascist comparisons to Trump/Republicans/conservatives and so on.
Now that Biden is in power, Nazi terms are becoming the norm once again, but there needs a degree of accuracy still and on Rachel Maddow's show, with guest host Ali Velshi in her chair, some rake-stepping took place. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia under Barack Obama Michael McFaul was a guest, and he fumbled as he tried to explain Hitler and ethnic Germans, and really he should have backed away. Also, that applies to the producers. On the Twitter account for the show, they paraphrased McFaul, and then the deleted tweets began.
- "One difference between Putin and Hitler is that Hitler didn't kill ethnic Germans, German-speaking people. Putin slaughters the very people he said he has come to liberate."
McFaul later tried to clarify things for the record, and he bungled that as well, leading to him deleting THAT tweet as well. Considering that Gina Carano was removed from the cast of "The Mandalorian" over far more innocuous content, this should tell you just how bad this whole episode became.
The historical record is clear. Hitler killed millions of Germans. We tweeted out part of an inaccurate statement made last night by former Ambassador Michael McFaul without attribution, and we regret doing so. We have since removed the tweet. pic.twitter.com/T33rhM1yPT
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) March 12, 2022
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – THE DAILY STAR
- Credit, please, for not making an "Erin Go Bra-less" comment.
The British entertainment outlet clearly was going for clicks in highlighting adult film starlet Maitlan Ward getting geared up for St Patrick's Day. Yes, this was a shallow attempt at generating traffic, but seriously, reporting that a porn actress did something without wearing a bra is the very definition of redundancy. Maybe letting us know when she wears underwear is the more newsworthy item.
Porn star Maitland Ward ditches bra as she prepares racy St Patrick's Day outfithttps://t.co/wFzjBex502 pic.twitter.com/iXI6NMHmVk
— Daily Star (@dailystar) March 10, 2022
