"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.
12.20.22
Anti-Social Media – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- The latest "Twitter Files" dump explains why the press avoids this massive story.
In the latest drop of Twitter documents, Elon Musk gave evidence of how much the FBI was involved with directing Twitter on how to manage and massage narratives, and the press was on board with following the directives. It explains fully why the press has either been trying to downplay the import of the revelations or avoiding them outright.
As I pointed out in the upcoming "Lie-Able Sources Podcast," there is one telling element in the latest drop that succinctly explains all of the subversion and collusion. The FBI has a task force comprised of 80 agents whose job is to monitor and police social media. The key aspect: This task force was formed without a specific crime or target in mind. It was formed specifically to guide social media platforms on approved messaging.
Once we had a standard in this country that the FBI had to at least have some indication of possible crime to initiate investigations. No longer. They can “pre-assess” at will, with no chargeable crime in sight, and people like you are fine with it. https://t.co/qhZMi1vutb
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 19, 2022
First Amendment Strike Force – CNN
- He opposes silencing, so he encourages silencing as a result.
In the "Reliable Sources" newsletter, Oliver Darcy is still very perturbed about the journalists who were put in timeout last week for all of about a day and a half. Oliver's response was to start going after various news outlets who have been advertising on Twitter to challenge them on why they would continue to do so when Elon Musk has shown antagonism toward journalism, ostensibly.
As Miranda Devine of the New York Post points out, Darcy seems to have a rather selective measure of outrage on such matters. When her paper was entirely taken down from Twitter, there was not much in the way of journalist support, nor Darcy knocking on doors to challenge the PR offices of outlets at the time.
Look at this attempt by @CNN @oliverdarcy to bully other media organizations into an advertising boycott of Elon Musk’s Twitter. He wasn’t agitating for a boycott when Twitter censored the @nypost for an accurate story and locked our account for over two weeks #LaptopFromHell pic.twitter.com/20ItpXjNiC
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) December 20, 2022
News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- An accounting error of this size getting ignored follows suit after a year of praising inflation.
Consider just how many times over the past few years we have been inundated with lectures about misinformation and how this is a major threat to our democracy and the foundations of the country. Now consider when the administration is found to have misled on economic issues, and done so at an extreme level, the abject silence over it in the press is deeply revealing.
It has been learned that the Q2 figures boasting 1.2 million jobs that the Jose Biden White House put out were actually off by over 1 million jobs.
The Biden administration initially estimated 1,121,500 jobs were added in Q2 of 2022.
— CNSNews (@cnsnews) December 20, 2022
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia now says the actual number was just 10,500. https://t.co/6phrENtxgR
News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- The moral crimes at the border seem to be somewhat fluid, huh?
While yesterday we showed how Martha Raddatz of ABC News was attempting to cast blame for the border influx on Republican names, the other practice in the press is to pretend there is no problem taking place in Texas. Case in point – when conditions for immigrant arrivals are shown to border on the inhumane, we are not getting any of the lectures we endured in the Trump years about how his housing was an immoral practice.
Bill Melugin provides a video from one holding location in El Paso that is holding more immigrants than four times the capacity of the facility. The lack of any attention from the major news outlets cannot be ignored.
NEW: Video provided to @FoxNews by TX Congressman @RepTonyGonzales shows extreme overcrowding at the Border Patrol Central Processing Center in El Paso, TX. Congressman Gonzales says he took the video on Friday, when 4,600 migrants were in federal custody. Capacity is only 1,040. pic.twitter.com/dpvH0NNseJ
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 18, 2022
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – DAILY STAR
A British hospital had to be evacuated when an 88-year-old patient came in with some rather curious ordinance…inserted into his nether regions. The bomb squad was called in as it was discovered that he had a World War I-era bomb nestled in his rectum. We wish we could provide you with more details, but common sense and decency prevented us from reading further.
Kids' ward evacuated after pensioner shows up at A&E with World War One bomb up his arse 😲💥 https://t.co/0MAY14Zeh9
— Mike Rotchburns (@M_Rotchburns) December 20, 2022
