"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.
07.08.22
Pre-Written Field Reports – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- Seems like just last month, they would battle to keep him from buying…
The ongoing soap opera involving the Elon Musk purchase of Twitter continues, and it continues to evolve. The latest wrinkle is that Musk has become hesitant about the purchase after examining the books and discovering what he says is an alarming amount of fake accounts on the platform.
For this reason, he is walking away from the deal, and that has led to a curious result; Twitter might turn to the courts to hold Musk to his purchase promise.
The company that initially was going to fight Musk on his purchase would now sue the billionaire to make him buy them, says one hedge fund expert.
- "There is about a 33% chance Twitter would then sue to enforce the merger agreement and win, the hedge fund manager said."
Elon Musk may walk away from $44B Twitter deal over fake accounts: report https://t.co/WJrcA13aQp pic.twitter.com/vgjf1MIbes
— New York Post (@nypost) July 7, 2022
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – WASHINGTON POST
- This will not help to dispel the impression of being a catty and petty journalist.
On the subject of Elon Musk, it was announced that he has recently become a new father to a pair of twins. For reasons that are not entirely clear, WaPo's embattled reporter Taylor Lorenz felt the need to be rather cutting with her remarks about this news.
This man cannot stop procreating https://t.co/0ZXkRjaop6
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) July 6, 2022
Anti-Social Media – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- Respect for the dead is no reason to dispatch your bias.
The jarring news last night that the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated saw a number of news outlets covering his death in a, shall we say, revealing fashion. It was shown that the fact that Abe was a conservative in Japanese politics was enough to cause a few American outlets to react in a harsher than expected fashion.
- ASSOCIATED PRESS - "Arch-conservative"
- NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO - "Ultranationalist"
- CBS MORNING NEWS - "A polarizing figure; right-wing nationalist, and conservative" whose "political opinions were controversial"
NPR: He had it coming https://t.co/Eh2awXHgjF
— Divisive Arch-Conservative Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 8, 2022
Presentation Paradox – ROLLING STONE
Here is a prime example of hiding the timeline in order to frame a story as bad. Rolling Stone implies they have evidence of possible collusion taking place inside the Supreme Court regarding the recent rollback of Roe v. Wade. The outlet states they learned that unnamed justices prayed with members of a pro-life group before the decision, a group that had filed briefs in the case that led to the ruling.
Technically…they were accurate. Yes, there was a comment made that they prayed together. The question becomes – when?
- "A prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. 'We're the only people who do that,' Peggy Nienaber said."
Ghastly stuff! But then it is deeper in the article that some rather important specifics come out.
- "Nienaber asserted, 'My comment was referring to past history and not practice of the past several years.' Nienaber added: 'During most of the history up to early 2020, I met with many people who wanted or needed prayer. Since early 2020, access to the Supreme Court has been restricted due to COVID. It has been many years since I prayed with a Justice.'"
EXCLUSIVE: Supreme Court justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and the late Antonin Scalia — have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court. https://t.co/J4OiaawsX8
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 6, 2022
Anti-Social Media – TWITTER
- Now, why would the account holders need to know these details?
Twitter recently suspended the account of news headline account Breaking 911. They were told it was a permanent suspension as a result of trying to skirt punishment, accusing the account of "ban evasion." The issue was confounding since the account had not previously been suspended nor banned, and then when trying to get clarification, Twitter would not explain.
Yet, Twitter was willing to explain things to NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny…for some reason. The claim was this had been a bot mistakenly flagging the account, as always seems to happen to unapproved news outlets.
A Twitter spokesperson emailed a statement: “The account referenced was temporarily suspended in error by an automated spam filter. This action has been reversed and the account is now fully operational.“
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) July 7, 2022
