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"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.

04.12.22

News Avoidance Syndrome – CNN+

Here in the RFTH offices (okay, fine – barstool…whatever…), we have been watching with interest the rollout of the new streaming service, CNN+. Indications were things have not been going gloriously. Now, more indicators are coming in. 

Business Insider looked at things, and there is little to brag about. 

- "WarnerMedia has gone all out to promote its new news streamer CNN+, but early figures show it's come out of the gate with more of a whimper than a bang."

On phones, you can only access the new service through the basic CNN app. While there was a spike in downloads with the rollout, it was hardly explosive. It saw roughly 77,000 new downloads in its first week, but that pales compared to other big app debuts. Disney+ raked in subscribers by the millions on its first day. 

The plans have been for the new service to see up to 2 million subscribers by year's end, with a doubling in five years. To say this is ambitious is an understatement. After three years in the marketplace, Fox Nation has 1.5 million subscribers, and that is with a network that averages three-to-six times the ratings of CNN. To say that the new parent company Warners Media is not getting a return on investment is safe to say. Estimates are they have already dropped up to $250 million on marketing CNN+.

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – MSNBC

  • Sticking to the wealthy by…giving them more benefits…?

We do not need to suggest that MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan is fully in the tank for Joe Biden – he'll tell us that himself. In looking over Biden's dismal approval figures, Hasan has a solution all gift-wrapped for the president; all he needs to do is buy the votes! 

"Joe Biden's approval ratings with 18-30-year-olds has dropped 25 percentage points since January 2021, per Gallup. This is the biggest drop of any age group - and an age group that helped Dems win the House in 2018 and 2020. Biden needs to cancel student debt ASAP."

The pundit was confronted with the prospect of this being a blatant bribery scam, and he deflected to other similar equivalencies he could conjure in defense. 

The only problem here, Mehdi – the loan forgiveness scam has been shown to be an enterprise that will heavily favor the rich as well. 

Pathological Media Amnesia – MIAMI HERALD

In the Miami Herald, columnist Leonard Pitts looked at a recent study that showed Republicans generally have a cynical view of the media.

- "What has gone missing from this country is not some idealized unity. Rather, it is something more profound. We no longer share a narrative. We no longer have a common thread. The survey, which asked 1,500 Americans which news organizations they trust the most, came back with a truly stunning result: Republicans trust almost nothing."

The amusement is that this is delivered from the news outlet that has consistently been spewing attack pieces on Governor Ron DeSantis, which are routinely debunked in a matter of hours. But the problem is supposedly with those in the GOP despising the press. 

Body Checking the Fact Checkers – SNOPES

  • Verifying only the important facts.

Over at one of the premiere truth detector sites, SNOPES has waded into the Florida Parental Rights law to get to the bottom of one of the details – have hundreds of thousands of subscribers left Disney+ as a result of the company opposing the new law?! 

This is completely unsubstantiated, according to the experts, but this leads one to wonder if they ever – you know – checked on some of the more important facts surrounding this law? For instance, have they looked into the claim that this is a "Don't Say Gay" bill and shown that to be an inaccurate label? That would be a resounding "NO," something rather evident by the fact these adherents to the truth used that very term in the fact-check on Disney. 

Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN

  • 'We will allow the evidence to follow our speculation.'

With the news of the New York subway shooting today, you could, of course, expect there to be gun control language immediately coming from media sources, but credit to Jim Sciuttio for taking things even further. While the story was still unfolding in live reports, Jim was able to come forward not just with anti-gun rhetoric but went so far as to actually pinpoint the blame.

- "I've heard it consistently from New York police officers and we've heard this from public comments from the commissioner, from the mayor about the problem with guns and gun violence in New York, where those guns come from, how easy to get them in the city from other states. They speak — they speak of them coming from southern states, often with more lax gun laws."

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