"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.
05.26.22
News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS
Consider all the times we saw her appearing on the news outlets, spewing her claims, and Rebekah Jones was on a trajectory similar to that of Michael Avenatti. Chris Cillizza, MSNBC, as well as countless newspapers were fawning over the woman claiming to be exposing the plot of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to cook the books and show how he was hiding higher Covid infection rates in his state. It was all garbage.
It was over a year ago when I covered here how Jones was making false claims and unsubstantiated accusations, and now this has been proven out. An Inspector General's report has shown that Jones has been unable to provide any evidence of her charges, and her claim to "whistleblower status" should be taken down.
3/3 Jones
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) May 26, 2022
?spread unfounded COVID ‘disinformation’
?attacked real epidemiologists who noted that
?was booted from Twitter
?faces a felony computer crime charge
?faces a stalking charge
?is running against Rep. Matt Gaetzhttps://t.co/aGUQ5YkhjQ
DNC PR Firm – WASHINGTON POST
- Look, if Ted Cruz said it, then it HAS to be incorrect.
Your first mistake was following the lead of Molly Jong-Fast. Your second was tweeting out your opinion on the subject of single-door access to schools when you clearly are unfamiliar with the operational realities of exit-only push bar doorways, which exist in nearly every school.
But hey, it is encouraging to see the Washington Post sees fit to promote editors who are clearly flummoxed by the concept of Emergency Exits.
Wouldn't building schools with only one door create other problems? Like making it harder for kids to get out if, say, there is a fire? https://t.co/L7T7SB2fbO
— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) May 26, 2022
Low Octane Gas Lighting – WASHINGTON POST
- Using your ignorant archive as evidence to be ignorant today.
Maybe we should just classify these mindless writings as "having a senior-editor moment." Next in line to embarrass themself at WaPo, we have Marc Fischer, who felt the need to school us on the history of the AR-15. You see, it was developed by the Nazis, which perfectly explains why the Republicans love them so much! Marc even links to an older article explaining all of this – written by himself, you see.
One problem: Marc was completely wrong five years ago, which makes him look especially ridiculous today. That gun has never been used by the military, was always sold as a civilian weapon, and for good measure – the Armalite company was not even in existence until almost a decade after WWII ended.
Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice…. https://t.co/Pw3AwI9pbc
— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) May 26, 2022
Reporting on the Mirror – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- Residents of Uvalde will be relieved that the mirror-dwellers are all arriving!
It remains a mystery what positives are realized when a tragedy occurs and the networks have their talking heads descend on a location to host their regular shows on location. How is anything meaningful accomplished when Wolf Blitzer stages his program at the site of a tornado?! This was witnessed in our location last year when the Miami Beach condominium collapsed, and news crews nationwide clogged the already congested beach community, replete with Chris Cuomo toddling around in socks bearing skulls.
Currently, Uvalde, Texas, is enduring such an influx, including the ever-useless Meghan Markle. There has been such a media stampede that the local area has run out of hotel rooms, so those suffering losses will be further challenged if any out-of-town family wants to come in to lend help.
I'm hearing from friends in Uvalde that there are so many members of the media there right now that the city ran out of hotel rooms last night.
— ?? Lauren McGaughy (@lmcgaughy) May 25, 2022
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – POLITIFACT
In the ever-transpiring effort to prop up the loser candidate that is Stacey Abrams, PolitiFact hits a new low. Last spring, Abrams had been pushing for corporate boycotts of her state in light of the voter integrity law. Then, after the financial hardships were realized, Abrams did a complete 180 and tried to position herself as the champion of Georgia/Atlanta business owners. The press at the time had her back.
An editorial she wrote in USA Today, days before Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game out of Atlanta, was mysteriously edited to reflect a completely different position on the matter from Abrams. Then, fact-checkers went ahead and used that revised editorial as proof that Abrams never called for boycotts.
With Abrams now in the running again for the governor's office, PolitiFact is resorting to that same revisionism today. It is a complete miscarriage of journalism ethics.
This is complete and utter garbage.
— Brad Slager ???????? Lifetime Subscriber to CNN+ (@MartiniShark) May 26, 2022
Not only did she initially lobby for boycotts, but once MLB pulled the game they credited Stacey Abrams with them making the decision.
This is sheer gaslighting by the supposed Fact-Check authority. This is a new low, even for this outfit. https://t.co/VOd3DBCvX9 pic.twitter.com/xIynb8zEJk
Artisanal-Crafted Headlines – THE NEW YORK TIMES
You just know ever since author Nancy Brophy was arrested for the death of her spouse that The Times headline offices were just vibrating with the anticipation of running this one – and really, who could blame them?!
Nobody saw this coming???https://t.co/lzIbVeGix1
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) May 25, 2022
