"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.
09.23.22
Reporting on the Mirror – THE ATLANTIC
- Nobody had the idea to maybe challenge him on this?
At a panel hosted by The Atlantic, Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke and sounded like a man recognizing his dwindling import on the country. After all, most are over the Covid hysteria, and Doc Tony leaped to sound an alarm this week after the president went on "60 Minutes" and declared that the pandemic was over.
But that anyone from a journalism outlet can listen to him proclaim that he is the voice of "consistency and truth" and not challenge him on this is remarkable to watch.
Fauci: "I'm symbolizing something, & I understand that, for people who have looked for consistency & truth & who could keep a calm demeanor at a time, a few years ago, when things were a bit discombobulated about, you know, 'This is going to go away tomorrow, this drug works'" pic.twitter.com/KWUx7zaP01
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 21, 2022
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – WASHINGTON POST
- Glenn might be having an internal competition with Taylor Lorenz for "Most Correct WaPo Journalist."
Glenn might be better off taking the week off. Or make it two. After shaming himself yesterday by straining to defend Stacey Abrams over her bizarre sonogram/fetal heartbeat comments, today Glenn steps in it once again over abortion. This time he states he "dug deep" into claims made by Republicans that some Democrat candidates favor abortion up to the date of delivery.
Glenn instead dug into a pile of fertilizer, as his "fact" check concerned other matters on late-term abortion. This was done so he could avoid the quotes from Democratic candidates stating they favor abortion up to the date of delivery.
ICYMI -- I dug deep into federal and state records to try to determine how often third trimester abortion might take place. https://t.co/GQgC437DtS
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 22, 2022
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – THE NEW YORK TIMES
- When you assume anything spoken is wrong, you make an "ass" out of "U"...and that's it.
Maggie Haberman is currently promoting her new book on the Trump presidency, so the fact that the former leader is still popping up in the news and doing interviews with Sean Hannity helps her promotional cause. The problem is that Maggie has become conditioned to not thinking through any of his comments as she just falls into default "he's wrong!" mode.
While Trump is prone to say daft things on occasion – such as declaring he can declassify documents by thought process – Mags thought she caught him on another prevarication. She jumps on a comment to suggest that Trump said he intentionally sent documents to Mar-a-Lago, after saying for some time he brought them unintentionally. The problem is she leaps on him providing a hypothetical example.
From the transcript: "If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, it’s declassified. Even by thinking about it, because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever you’re sending it."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022
If this is the kind of diligence to detail we can expect from her tome, we just might be better off saving our money.
Blue-Anon – REUTERS
You can see the stretch marks forming as Reuters looked to come up with a way to impugn the state of Texas over its abortion law. There must be some way, but how…
Ah ha! The state is heavily into the oil industry! What we can do is declare that abortion will be hard on oil and gas companies – that'll show those Texans!
How Texas' abortion ban hurts Big Oil's effort to transform its workforce https://t.co/WmWjwyv0M5 pic.twitter.com/n1Wa4JJFTl
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 23, 2022
Low Octane Gas Lighting – NBC 4 - NEW YORK
- Ask anyone from Central America, and they will tell you Martha's Vineyard is their dream destination.
NBC 4 is on the cutting edge of the immigration issue because local Big Apple affiliates are at least plugged into the border crisis over the national news outlets, we have to assume. Although their "coverage" is rather suspect, based on this report on the recent drama of migrant flights. The station resorts to claiming that Governors DeSantis and Abbot are the reason that so many are flooding across the border.
You know, because the recent flights this month inspired the hordes to come here for over a year and a half now.
The country’s top border official blamed Republican governors for drawing more migrants to the U.S. by promising them free bus rides north to places like New York, Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. https://t.co/XxdHLCtCo4
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) September 23, 2022
Low Octane Gas Lighting – THE HILL
The quest to slam DeSantis over the flight to Matha's Vineyard continues, and The Hill tries to pretend that Floridians are poised to turn on the governor over the incident.
DeSantis risks voter backlash in Florida with migrant flights https://t.co/WPCJbSoxBi pic.twitter.com/9nB8jec1Ho
— The Hill (@thehill) September 23, 2022
Of course, relying only on leftist spokespersons and not providing anything approaching sound data leads to this kind of report – and getting ratioed in harsh fashion. A Morning Consult poll from this week shows widespread support for the DeSantis effort, with more Hispanics approving the move than disapproving.
??NEW POLL??
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) September 21, 2022
According to a brand new POLITICO / Morning Consult poll, a plurality of Hispanics say it's appropriate for Republican governors to relocate migrants to liberal areas — by nearly the same margin as whites.
Hispanic: +6
Whites: +7 pic.twitter.com/aIfpFTuaLJ
Anti-Social Media – CNN
- When you are angry over a fair approach to the facts, maybe the network is not the problem?
In yesterday's column, we covered how CNN is rearranging much of their schedule while retaining much of their problematic staff. One of those moves was that next month, we will be seeing Jake Tapper shifting from his 4 pm show and taking over the 9 pm slot on the schedule. This literal lateral move has some viewers enraged – as they see it as a reward for Tapper moving to a more central approach to stories to appease the bosses.
Why you are upset with a pundit you are not watching moving to another hour where you will not watch is a bit perplexing.
