"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.
10.10.22
Anti-Social Media – POLITICO
- This basically voids any future coverage about GOP sexism.
We won't be linking to the piece to avoid amplifying it, but Indiana candidate Jennifer Ruth-Greene had a "profile" of her that ran in Politico.
This is the repugnant piece Politico ran that exposed Green's private tragedy experienced in the military. pic.twitter.com/p3eju98SKp
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) October 10, 2022
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In the piece, writer Adam Wren used military documents supplied to him of Greene's military career in an effort to cast her negatively. Among the details exposed in the illegally-obtained documents, Politico exposed an incident where she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of enemy combatants. Greene has addressed this episode herself, so we will let her words stand.
Press Release: Statement on @RepMrvan and Allies Illegally Obtaining Green’s Military Records, @Politico Outing Sexual Assault#IStandWithJRG #IN01
— Jennifer-Ruth Green (@JenRuthGreen) October 9, 2022
Press Release: https://t.co/lwEvR8ZDGH (1/11)
Making the matter all the more repugnant, Politico – after being fed these documents from Greene's opponent, Rep. Frank Mrvan – is the outlet actually defending their behavior. Politico's VP of marketing and communications, Brad Dayspring, claimed they had come across the documents legally. Their source allegedly used a FOIA request to obtain those, except matters of sexual assault and other related matters are not disclosed through a records request. Greene sent a notice to Politico asking them not to run the portions regarding this deeply personal episode; the outlet ignored her request.
The disturbing detail is that in the past, Dayspring had very strong words about those who engage in the very behavior he is defending today.
Exploiting sexual assault cases for personal and political gain should be a fireable offense. http://t.co/COm8W2EFrH #IAsen #IApolitics
— Brad Dayspring (@BDayspring) August 26, 2014
DNC PR Firm – THE DES MOINES REGISTER
- Just ignore our racist positions in order to accuse a candidate of racism.
In Iowa, GOP Governor Kim Reynolds is up for reelection. She put out a campaign ad that is rather straightforward in her policy positions, and it is unsurprising that a few of those might rankle those on the left. At the reliably liberal newspaper The Des Moines Register, they threw all manner of accusations at Reynolds over what they saw as patently racist comments.
- "We feel compelled to add our voice: The ad is dehumanizing. It's racist. It's embarrassing. It's indefensible. It should be beneath any Iowa elected official. It tells people who look different from most Iowans that, at best, they are indeed different and, even worse, inferior."
The only issue: At no point does Reynolds ever say anything of the sort. The primary gripe from the paper is over her opposition to defunding the police. In a brief clip, Reynolds plays a video of Rep. Cori Bush touting her infamous support of defunding the police, and the paper takes issue with this by implying the reason the Bush clip was included was another sly method of racism…that the galaxy brains at The Des Moines Register picked up on.
See, there is a slight resemblance, according to them, to Reynolds' opponent in the campaign, Diedre DeJear, and so they were trying to tie them together – though DeJear is never mentioned, as Reynolds was contrasting the national issues with those in Iowa. Sharp move, editors – accusing racism, all because you think all black women look similar.
- "It would strain credulity to think there wasn't a reason behind the selection of Bush, who vaguely resembles DeJear, to associate DeJear with the contentious slogan, even though she has explicitly stated she doesn't favor defunding the police."
Opinion: In just 30 seconds, the shrewd spot implicitly demeans many of the governor's constituents, writes the Register's editorial board.
— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) October 3, 2022
https://t.co/bDnDw7ZHX1
Pathological Media Amnesia – MSNBC
- "If we could just put all of this nastiness from you idiots aside for just a moment so we can interview you…"
Hey, speaking of racism accusations, we have a Joy Reid entry! It seems that Joy wanted to take a break away from her regular drumbeat of slamming Governor Ron DeSantis and have an interview with him regarding the hurricane relief efforts. Seriously – the woman who just a week earlier suggested DeSantis was racist when he gave a presser and coached people not to loot in the areas damaged by the storm came to the DeSantis team with an interview request.
It is not surprising that they were less than motivated by the request.
You’re upset that you got turned down again, huh? pic.twitter.com/XoVlQBkVV6
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) October 6, 2022
Pre-Written Field Reports – VARIOUS MEDIA
- "If you could take a break from your destroyed personal life and provide us with some news content, that'd be super."
The Washington Post has a touching piece on how the media vultures are clamoring across social media to have storm victims provide them with destruction photos and conduct interviews as they grapple with their rendered existence after Hurricane Ian.
Journalists want to know: Can we use your disaster photo, please? (@jeremymbarr - @washingtonpost) https://t.co/5RUeii92nc
— MediaREDEF (@MediaREDEF) October 6, 2022
Stealth Story Evolution – NBC NEWS
- So, that thing that they were not doing? They are not going to do it any longer.
On the gender-affirming surgery front, there is a constant shifting of the goalposts by those who constantly accuse those on the other side of the issue of using misinformation and baseless accusations.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been one of the hospitals that came under fire for operating on underage children with sex reassignment surgery. At Vanderbilt, they had at one point denied conducting unethical surgeries of this nature, but after exposure by Matt Walsh and the subsequent media attention, NBC News now says the university will suspend the performing of these operations – uh, which were not taking place?
Officials at Vanderbilt University Medical Center say they are pausing gender-affirming surgeries for minors in order to review their practices. https://t.co/7XXMHCKPt8
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 10, 2022
Pathological Media Amnesia – ESPN
- The question is, how many white anglos were offended?
As the baseball playoffs are underway, ESPN ran an onscreen promotion for an upcoming game. The guy running the chyrons in the truck is probably fired for posting this hateful display of Cleveland's former intolerant and racist nickname!
Ummm ... pic.twitter.com/5WNrNUXu8e
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) October 8, 2022
