"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.
08.23.22
Hoax & Change – THE ATLANTIC
- Flogging the expired equine in brave fashion.
The Never Trump crowd is having a struggle of late. Their favorite target is not in power, their backed president has been a mess and is currently MIA, and even the recent FBI raid on Trump's residence that had them aquiver has been showing to be less and less valid of a move.
David Frum faced all these realities and did the only sane thing: He went back to "Russian Collusion!"
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In response to Professor Nick Grossman rehashing the Russian probe of Trump (the Steele dossier was only a big deal because Republicans lied about it being valid, is his level of genius here), Frum decided to go on a ranting thread in order to "prove" Russian collusion actually took place.
Just imagine what this conservative mind could come up with were he to look forward and start analyzing the Biden administration.
Trump-Russia a hoax? Well, except for the part where ... https://t.co/7DUjuXJKkg
— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 22, 2022
News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- All is quiet on the West Wing Front, and the press is electing not to notice.
CNN's Daniel Dale has had an easy time of it this month. The resident fact checker whose primary job seems to be posting Joe Biden's public schedule each day has not had much to work with this month. Joe Biden has barely been seen in August, going from taking a vacation to an afternoon signing ceremony to needing a vacation after using a pen, as he now enters his third week with time off. Add to that the days he has been sequestered after two bouts with Covid, and the man is something of a cipher of late.
There has not been a press briefing since the 9th, and that few in the press are concerned is something of note. By now, Biden has taken more days off at this stage than Donald Trump had, and that was cause for concern and criticism when he was in office.
Here’s Biden’s public schedule for today. (Public schedules don’t include all of a president’s activities.) pic.twitter.com/JZgXUI79Kn
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 19, 2022
Both Kinds of Standards – CNN
The subject of "dark money" has reared up once again, and once again, it is something that is demonized as solely a Republican enterprise. CNN has allegedly uncovered a nefarious cash funnel going to conservative groups, with some ties to Donald Trump thrown in for bad measure. Not only is this another example of willful ignorance about the Democrats and that party's subsistence on dark money, but as Matt Whitlock shows nicely, CNN relied on information for its report – given to them by a Democrat dark money bundler!
Pretty incredible to write this entire piece without the context that the right's dark money efforts are a tiny fraction of the scale of the left.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 22, 2022
Left wing dark money is so influential that the top expert CNN quoted in this piece .. is a left-wing dark money operative. https://t.co/jLURwJTFsh
Glossary Over Things – ASSOCIATED PRESS
- Seriously, at this point, they should sell their Stylebook with erasable whiteboard pages.
The AP is at it once again, altering their Stylebook in an effort to alter our language to fit the media narratives. Last week, they were rewriting their previous rewriting of pregnancy terms because some were getting caught in the snare of saying "women's right to an abortion." Now, they go back to the gender well to us…well, don't use pronouns for... things.
We are lectured not to use the feminine designator for items like boats and Siri. Also, you should not do so with storms – even, we have to guess, when hurricanes are given feminine names?
Basically, the rule comes down to this: Do Not Misgender Stuff!
Our style: Don't use the pronoun "she" in reference to nations, ships, storms or voice assistants except in direct quotations. Use "it" instead.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) August 22, 2022
Anti-Social Media – TWITTER
Things have been somewhat quiet of late in the ongoing drama of Elon Musk. Will he/won't he buy the social media platform. Now, a new issue has emerged, and it looks downright dire for the company.
A whistleblower from high up in its tech division has come out with all sorts of horrendous details about how inept the company is with its security and internal tech operations. More than just the issue of bot accounts, he tells how the security of office hardware is non-existent, that thousands of engineers have free access to the framework of the operations, and that the company cannot even be sure it deletes information from those users who cancel their account.
This is more than an individual sitting down for a TV segment in hopes of landing a book deal. To give an idea of the significance, this whistleblower has compiled a 200-page disclosure of the various issues and has delivered it to a number of government agencies as well as some congressional committees.
Elon Musk and his lawyers must be popping some champagne bottles today.
Lots of allegations -- here's the full story: https://t.co/rKDIlQeMXa
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) August 23, 2022
