"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.
05.05.22
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – POLITIFACT
This one was a while in coming. Governor Ron DeSantis recently gave a speech where he declared that "the student debt that is out there, almost 60% of it is graduate school debt." PolitiFact decided this needed to be verified, and thus begins another round of a DeSantis Debunking Debacles™.
First, DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw revealed she was contacted by the site, asking where the governor found such a statistic? Pushaw gently had to direct the intrepid fact-checker to…his own website.
Next, Christina predicted that DeSantis saying "About 60%" when the actual figure was 56% would become graded as "Mostly False."
Then this piece came out today – after writer Yakob Reyes had said he was on a quick deadline – and he performed just as poorly as expected.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said: “the student debt that is out there, almost 60% of it is graduate school debt.”
— Yacob Reyes (@yacob_reyes) May 5, 2022
We found his claim Mostly False.
More on @PolitiFact: https://t.co/QSSsXSlscf
Pre-Written Field Reports – CNBC
The news of the SCOTUS leak that shows a possibility of Roe vs. Wade being overturned has many in the country on edge. With such a hot-button third-rail issue generating extreme passions, it is understandable that any company would want to refrain from commenting. This is not something reporters at CNBC can understand.
After finding that few companies were issuing statements about the news, writers Melissa Repko and Lauren Feiner and their staff reached out to a large number of companies, hoping to provoke comment.
- "Dozens of companies, including Walmart, American Airlines and Disney, have yet to issue statements or respond to CNBC requests for comment."
You would think including Disney on their list would have triggered a reason in their minds for the hesitation, but then I am not a business reporter reaching out to dozens of corporate PR divisions.
CNBC Pushes Corporate Signaling as Companies Run Away From SCOTUS Abortion Issue
— RedState (@RedState) May 5, 2022
https://t.co/Vd6VVxnWmC
Presentation Paradox – THE NEW YORK TIMES (Pt. 1)
Fresh off its hot epic takedown of Tucker Carlson this weekend – who, by the way, is still on the air in the #1-rated position – The Times went after Elon Musk. The paper leaned heavily on the Apartheid/racist side of things, with a nice side dish of the piping hot issue of misinformation.
Elon Musk grew up in elite white communities in South Africa, detached from apartheid’s atrocities and surrounded by anti-Black propaganda.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 5, 2022
He sees his takeover of Twitter as a free speech win but in his youth did not suffer the effects of misinformation. https://t.co/bciCJDWGGP
- "It is unclear what role his childhood — coming up in a time and place in which there was hardly a free exchange of ideas and where government misinformation was used to demonize Black South Africans — may have played in that decision."
Then, some of the most revealing evidence they have in the piece – shows Elon to be a pointedly not-racist type of individual.
oh, so the opposite of the thesis pic.twitter.com/QzDP5nkAHS
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) May 5, 2022
Stealth Story Evolution – THE NEW YORK TIMES (Pt. 2)
- Maybe the editing should take place BEFORE publication…?
It would appear that The Times became appraised of the conflicting nature of the headline and premise of the article, with the evidence and testimony showing a completely different side of the man in their crosshairs. Later in the day, some quiet edits were discovered to have occurred in the deeply important profile.
Some editing going on this afternoon https://t.co/3kQSgPW0Y5 pic.twitter.com/SGFQLNJIO9
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) May 5, 2022
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – CNN
Instead of looking into administration issues, such as the WH Press Secretary claiming schools are segregating LGBT+ students, CNN's Daniel Dale decided he needed to fact check some Republicans on an issue from last Fall, no less.
Dale resorts to a lame method, where a particular detail can be picked out and shown to be wrong, and therefore the entire story is to be tossed out. Then, if any Republican is to cite said story, they are automatically trafficking in "misinformation" for using a "debunked" story.
At issue is the case of a national school board group trying to get the Feds to stop parents from shouting at meetings. Dale calls the story false because Attorney General Merrick Garland never called school parents "terrorists." While very technically true, the NSBA did say this and asked for the Patriot Act and other agency directives to be employed, and to go along, the DOJ did send agents out from the domestic terrorism division to monitor school board meetings.
In other words, it is a rather valid story.
Legalized Press-titution – MSNBC
It was made official today that Jen Psaki will be leaving her position at the White House, and she will be replaced by Karine Jean-Pierre.
This means that the current press secretary is leaving to go to MSNBC, and the new press secretary steps in after working at MSNBC. Only a cynic and a crank would suggest there is any kind of conflict of interest to be found.
NEW: President Biden names Karine Jean-Pierre as the new White House press secretary, replacing Jen Psaki.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 5, 2022
Jean-Pierre will be the first Black woman to hold the position, as well as the first openly gay press secretary. https://t.co/WVqnmSb7oT
