"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.
09.08.22
News Avoidance Syndrome – CNN
- And suddenly, political violence is a lesser concern.
The news out of Las Vegas of a reporter allegedly killed by the politician he had been covering is rather jarring. Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was killed outside of his home, and police have arrested Robert Telles, the Clark County administrator who had been the subject of investigations by German.
This story takes on an added significance when you balance it out against the recent speeches from President Biden about the promise of political violence looming on the horizon.
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In looking over the coverage on CNN, there is some reticence by the network to state what party Telles belongs to. In a report on the arrest, video coverage of the incident, and a follow-up piece regarding the stories German had filed on Telles, we never seem to get that particular detail. Only in a Thursday afternoon piece do we find deep in the article a solitary mention of Telles' affiliation. "First elected to the office in 2018, Telles lost his bid for reelection in a June Democratic primary."
Numerous entries over the course of days, and it took that long for that lone indication to surface.
A local official in Las Vegas was arrested in connection to the killing of a veteran journalist who had been reporting on the official's purported wrongdoing, his newspaper says. https://t.co/6GVpGJ3vsF
— CNN (@CNN) September 8, 2022
Anti-Social Media – SNAP
In a report that sends optic nerves into a state of distress from the stary eye-rolling induced, Axios details that Snap has granted access to voter information to one party. Oh, unintentionally, mind you.
- "Snap allowed leading Democratic campaigns and party committees to unwittingly tap into a vast repository of Republican voter data to hone their midterm ads, Axios has learned."
And let's note Axios taking the very straight-faced approach to the happenstance nature of it all. "Slip-up," "snafu," "oversight," "blunder," "inadvertently," "an internal mistake," and "mixup" are all employed in the story that claims Snap was unaware the data breach occurred, and the Democrat accounts had no way of knowing they had gained this access without permission.
whoopsie https://t.co/N71GpwqAgJ
— Grace Curley (@G_CURLEY) September 8, 2022
Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- It was not one but TWO paintings, so it is EXTRA big news!
Sure, we suppose it is newsworthy and historical and all of that. But is it really front page matching photo-worthy that President Obama and the former first lady had their portraits revealed in the White House yesterday?
Rolling California blackouts, a new British Prime Minister, campaigns across the country, border crisis, and even the start of the NFL season -- all take a backseat to the guy who was President 6 years ago getting a portrait done. pic.twitter.com/Zk7bE81RlO
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) September 8, 2022
DNC PR Firm – MSNBC
- It cannot be an in-kind donation when there is no actual campaign, but still…
It is not a rare event when something said by Chris Hayes leads to confusion, but even by that standard, this is a baffler. Hayes played a clip from Fox News's "The Five," where Greg Gutfeld made comments regarding the Democrats becoming the party of young white women demanding abortion up to the full term date.
Hayes has some campaign advice for the Democrats as a result, and it makes little to no sense. It is unclear what office he thinks Gutfeld is running for here, but it is clear Hayes wants to help the Democrat cause, as well as wanting all abortion legal at all times.
Just clip this and run it in swing states, honestly. https://t.co/ioOSvwkQf5
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 8, 2022
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – USA TODAY
- Nearly dozens of people could have seen this, leading to…um, leading to…
The sharp-eyed truth sleuths at USA Today picked up on a false story going around and put the clamps of verification on it quickly. Almost instantly, it would appear!
The accuracy deputies are here to inform us that a story spotted on social media about Tulsi Gabbard provoking an IRS audit on Nancy Pelosi via donations is not – repeat, NOT accurate! As the story goes, Gabbard allegedly had sent a donation to the Speaker to the tune of $600.01. This is a total that is supposed to trigger an automatic audit of Pelosi's finances, but we have now been told none of this is accurate. And USA Today acted just in time. According to the writer, as of publication, this was not exactly what you would describe as a viral posting. It seems questionable enough to feel the need to correct Facebook posts, but one like this getting barely shared feels downright insignificant.
- "'Tulsi Gabbard Venmos Nancy Pelosi $600.01 forcing the IRS to audit her finances (sic),' reads the text in an Aug. 18 Facebook post that was shared at least 75 times."
Fact check: False claim that Tulsi Gabbard used Venmo to trigger Nancy Pelosi IRS audit https://t.co/JyNrgmZHn9 via @usatoday
— Dave Agar (@dave1agar) September 5, 2022
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – VICE NEWS
You have to imagine that at Vice, they have a closet of these timeless think pieces at the ready when there is a slow news day, and they can reach in to pluck one out to fill content space and appear legitimate.
We did not fully expect to see the day when police dogs are declared racist, but then we most certainly should have come to expect that this is the case.
For more than 500 years, dogs have been used by the powerful as a tool to oppress minorities. We spoke to experts about how this age-old institution has evolved, and how its managed to persist into the present despite its depraved and racist origins. https://t.co/hoYw5jVV6y
— VICE News (@VICENews) September 7, 2022
