"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage of 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.
04.04.22
Prose & Contradiction – NBC NEWS
Jill Wine-Banks is renowned for being a lawyer from the Watergate investigations, so when she resorts to the tired media trope of elevating a news story to Watergate levels, you might tend to listen. (SIDEBAR – The media only use this on stories involving Republicans. Democrat scandals never rise to the Watergate standard.)
That said, you should not listen to Banks on this one. That is because the entire premise of the gap in the White House phone logs was disproven on Friday. Making this commentary from Wine-Banks and MSNBC all the worse is that it came out on Saturday after it was already debunked.
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You know what’s at least as important as a slap in the face?
— Sue O'Connell (@SueNBCBoston) April 2, 2022
The former president has a massive gap on his phone log…
“Trump's phone log gap could be much worse than Nixon's Watergate tape erasures” https://t.co/kPi0DAD3Je
Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN
- Give John Avlon credit, he sounds really firm in his report that was clearly never researched.
Also chiming in with Watergate intonations was John Avlon on CNN's morning show "New Day." He had a caustic summation of how Trump's non-existent phone log gap was so dire, and the manner in which he gets this so wrong carries a number of amusements.
We actually have our pick of what makes his fact-free boastfulness so amusing. Was it his getting the story hyperbolically wrong in a segment entitled "Reality Check"? Was it dropping the Watergate comparison before pointing out how Bob Woodward had his byline on this story that was rather quickly discredited? Or is it that Avlon was ultimately proven completely false when his own network reported that there was, in fact, a fully intact phone log from that day?
"It's coming back to bite him" - @JohnAvlon calls out the irony behind Trump's go-to lines about Watergate to hype up Democratic scandals after reports show a 7-hour call log gap from the former President during the hours around the attack on the Capitol on January 6. pic.twitter.com/OA4cebpGXj
— CNN (@CNN) March 30, 2022
Presentation Paradox – NBC NEWS
NBC News comes out with a timely story from Florida about how the new parental rights law is already having a disastrous effect on the state's schools. The network reports that teachers are already quitting over the new law!
Well…they found two of them. Kind of.
One 6th grade teacher announced he was quitting after this school year when there was a complaint because he mentioned he was married to a man, even though the school fully supported him and took no action. The other, who is a lesbian, had already quit weeks ago, even before the bill had been voted on by the legislature.
Other details that need highlighting regarding these two "examples" are that neither educator taught the grades affected by the law, and oh – the law has not even been implemented, as it takes effect in the summer after school is out of session.
Some LGBTQ educators in Florida are leaving the profession after the enactment of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. https://t.co/iSnDtxaDN8
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 1, 2022
Both Kinds Of Standards – WASHINGTON POST
- "It's horribly the way they are using our tactics on this story!"
Paul Waldman has tracked down a pernicious activity surrounding the reporting of the Florida parents' rights law. Some people are misnaming the legislation in order to promote their agenda about the issue! Just understand, he is not upset at those calling it the "Don't Say Gay" bill, he is angry over those calling it an "Anti-Groomer Law."
Heads up: the idea of accusing anyone who supports treating gay people as full members of society of being pedophiles is SPREADING FAST on the right.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) March 30, 2022
On right wing sites, "Don't Say Gay" is now universally referred to as the "Anti-Groomer Bill." On its way into the mainstream. https://t.co/3pz5ZV8Tdl
Paul cannot tolerate those who have recharacterized the law to suit an agenda, as he uses the accepted media recharacterization of the bill to suit his agenda because that was done using the noblest of lies, while their doing so is somehow unethical…I guess…maybe?
Low Octane Gas Lighting – POLITIFACT
As this column has been following, the fact-checkers centered on the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation process have had little to no interest in studying the judge's past and have instead been busying themselves proving Republicans challenging her to be wrong. I made a final list of coverage from the outlets, and the imbalance is wild.
One of the most ridiculous fact-checks was when PolitiFact went after a random name on Facebook over a detail that had zero impact on – anything.
The dastardly account had declared that every network had covered the Brett Kavanaugh hearing live, but none were doing so with KBJ. PolitiFact swooped in to take action – and…proved the account was correct. Look at the way they have to parse the details.
- NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and NPR were all streaming the hearing live on their sites. There were news stories on all the sites, and many had live analysis of the hearing. The television broadcasts were less consistent.
On - their - sites.
The claim was that it was not being shown live by the networks. Only MSNBC and OAN had given any live feed from the hearing. Then PolitiFact has to further split hairs.
- "It's important to remember that Kavanaugh's hearing happened in two rounds. The first occurred Sept. 4-7, 2018, when he appeared before the Judiciary Committee and answered lawmakers' questions about his judicial record and beliefs. This was before Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh became public. That testimony happened on Sept. 27, and Kavanaugh vigorously denied the assault allegation.
It's perhaps this exceptional day of the confirmation hearing that people remember in contrast to Jackson's confirmation hearing.
ABC, CBS and NBC skipped their usual daytime TV lineups to air the hearing live, Variety reported at the time. 'Every major broadcast and cable network suspended regular programming to carry gavel-to-gavel coverage,' the New York Times also reported."
Okay, so as it turns out, this Facebook account was actually spot-on with the assessment. How did this measure up to the standards of PolitiFact?
- "We Rate This Post FALSE."
Well, of course, you do.
Anti-Social Media – WASHINGTON POST
- Putting the same standard of content for classrooms as Disney applies to its films means the governor is murdering kids – got it.
Look, political cartoons are supposed to be hyperbolic and broad in meaning. You need to make an impact in a limiting medium, so it takes some talent to distill a story in a truncated format. But getting the thrust of a law completely incorrect and then, as a result, reducing the governor of Florida as killing off children because he is instituting age-appropriate standards for the youngest grades is just flat-out ignorance.
Opinion | Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the Trumpiest one of all? https://t.co/ybka7b913C
— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) March 31, 2022
