"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.
06.15.22
Reporting on the Mirror – PEW RESEARCH
The gang at Pew Research conducted a survey about the journalism industry – comprised of the journalists themselves. An impressive amount – 12,000 – responded to the poll. The findings tend to reveal some delusion.
At the start, roughly three-quarters of them say they are happy with their job, are proud of the work, and would pursue the career again if given the choice. But then the contradictions emerge.
Just about as many use negative terms to describe the industry (72%) and declare that made-up news is a problem for the country (71%). Amusingly, a high percentage are concerned over press freedoms (57%). Considering how so many of the threats to shut down outlets and platforms emanate from the press is a very deep irony.
More than half – 55% – believe that both political sides do not deserve equal coverage. This kind of thinking may lead to the most amusing part of the poll. While public trust in the press is quite low, the press themselves carry a lower expectation than the people. When asked about how much the public trusted them, half as many journos believed than the actual number of citizens.
- "Moreover, just 14% of journalists surveyed say they think the U.S. public has a great deal or fair amount of trust in the information it gets from news organizations these days. Most believe that Americans as a whole have some trust (44%) or little to no trust (42%).
When a similar question was posed to the general public, 29% of U.S. adults say they have at least a fair amount of trust in the information they get from news outlets, while 27% say they have some trust and 44% have little to none."
NEW: While U.S. journalists recognize the many challenges facing their industry, they continue to express a high degree of satisfaction and fulfillment in their jobs. https://t.co/P1QuhxbLUc
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) June 14, 2022
Stealth Story Evolution – CNN
Last week, when Brian Stelter was complaining about Fox News not running the commission hearing live on the main network (it was seen in its entirety on the Fox Business Channel), the commentary was that the network did not want its viewers to see the truth behind the investigation. Well, they ran the full second day of hearings on Monday, and the viewers wanted nothing to do with the travesty.
- "The Fox News audience was uninterested: The network averaged 1.6 million viewers in the 9am hour, but many of those viewers changed the channel once the hearing began at 10:45. In the 11am hour, Fox only averaged 888,000 viewers, and in the noon hour, 987,000. The audience gradually came back after the hearing, and by 5pm 'The Five' was back to 3.3 million viewers. For MSNBC, the audience flows were the opposite: 1 million viewers at 9am, 3 million during the hearing, and back down afterward."
Dayside Cable News Ratings - Mon Jun 13 @FoxNews dominated @MSNBC @CNN @Newsmax @NewsNation at 8 am with @FoxandFriends and @AinsleyEarhardt @SteveDoocy Pete Hegseth, then it was MSNBC for the 11 am and Noon hours. pic.twitter.com/wuaVS7k5VJ
— RoadMN ?? (@RoadMN) June 14, 2022
News Avoidance Syndrome – ROLLING STONE
Conservative firebrand Matt Walsh has a new movie released about the gender wars, called "What Is A Woman?" and it is getting the noses of many activists and members of the media out of joint – namely, Rolling Stone Magazine, and specifically writer Moises Fenty.
The writer condemned the film and leveled accusations about its content, suggesting the hateful aspects were violating TOS for various platforms where it was being advertised. Then Walsh yanked the rug on Fenty. Their production company provided screeners to media outlets and, through their data metrics, were able to measure viewership instances and times.
Walsh showed Fenty never opened the screener, and at the magazine, one editor managed roughly 10 minutes of viewing.
Today @RollingStone ran a hit piece about What Is A Woman, calling it transphobic propaganda. The funny thing is that we sent screeners to the writer of the piece, @MoisesFenty, and we can see that he watched zero percent of the film before arriving at this conclusion. pic.twitter.com/3Sh9dePPUz
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 11, 2022
Body Checking the Fact Checkers – POLITIFACT
It is one of our regular features here in this column to highlight the way fact-checkers manage to butcher and bungle the very thing they are supposed to be experts in – the facts. We also point out the manner in which they avoid checking on the pertinent things – such as the frequent fabrications from the Joe Biden administration – by spending time on petty social media gags, like ferreting out if someone actually had killed their imaginary friend.
In a bit of fulsome fundraising, PolitiFact's Editor In Chief Angie Drobnic Holan paints her staffers as entailed and angelic warriors of the truth, beset by the hateful scourge of media members willing to stand up to her vilifying verification team. It seems rather notable that all of the people she lists by name as "attacking" her staff are from the right side of the political aisle; Dan Bongino and Christina Pushaw are name-checked, for instance. Does PolitiFact not receive critical pushback from the left? This seems significant and makes you wonder if Ms. Holan has pondered this reality.
But she does have a position on the intemperate responses she receives from the like of Pushaw.
- "When the government itself tries to delegitimize journalists, it's a warning sign that they may soon take more concrete steps against independent journalism. Yes, that would be unconstitutional, but we've seen many constitutional norms suffer in recent days."
Our reporters have recently faced online harassment. They have our complete support, and we proudly stand by their work. https://t.co/gx8GiVzprZ
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) June 13, 2022
Body Checking the Fact Checkers – THE NEW YORKER
- When a journalist resists putting their work on the record.
Jeremy Redfern is the press secretary for the Florida Department of Health. He detailed an exchange he went through with a fact-checker from The New Yorker, who became a touch incensed when Redfern asked for the questions she had to be submitted to his office in writing.
Karen the Fact-Checker from the @NewYorker.
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) June 14, 2022
Want answers? Send your questions in writing. This isn’t difficult, Karen. pic.twitter.com/31CC3dq54i
Not only did this journo go the full Karen route, but she continued writing out her position on how it was important for her to have been answered – an amount of writing that probably would have equaled the questions she supposedly had.
The email from Karen, and my response: https://t.co/WHDVnT6fbO pic.twitter.com/UuTspMa0c0
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) June 14, 2022
Prose & Contradiction – WASHINGTON POST
At Axios, Sarah Fischer details that the Washington Post has entered into an entertainment agreement with a Hollywood studio. "The Washington Post and Imagine Entertainment have struck a multi-year deal to create scripted and non-scripted film and TV content based on the Post's vast archives, current reporting and ongoing investigations."
Likely intended to burnish their historical reputation by romanticizing past accomplishments, it may not be a bad idea. After all, Taylor Lorenz alone has managed to dull much of the glimmer off of the paper's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Watergate story. Even so, this does not quite sound as encouraging as they might have hoped that it would.
- "The statement added that WaPo publisher Fred Ryan will oversee the deal. 'At The Post,' Ryan said, 'we're storytellers at heart.'"
Hmmm, you know – it feels like story-telling has been at the root of many of the recent problems seen at The Post.
NEW: @washingtonpost is heading to Hollywood.
— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) June 14, 2022
- The company has inked a major first-look deal with Imagine Entertainment to create scripted and non-scripted film and TV content based on the Post's archives and reporting.
- Story on @axios https://t.co/zf2rA5yy5g
