07.14.23
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – WASHINGTON POST
- Well, she doesn't like the guy, so accurately covering him is not a priority.
There was some excitement across the Twitter sphere when notices were being posted of accounts that had received payouts from the platform for their subscribed accounts. Internet maven Taylor Lorenz looked at this result and came to a daft conclusion: Elon Musk was paying people to remain on the platform.
Musk resorting to essentially bribing big accts to stay on Twitter https://t.co/OaN2WEASQK
— TaylorLorenz.Substack.com (@TaylorLorenz) July 13, 2023
This past weekend, Lorenz wrote that TikTok was taking over the social media mantle from Twitter, and this assessment appears to be a dose of confirmation bias. Musk's payouts were part of a subscription platform where people earn revenue. Maybe Taylor is upset that she is missing out due to being a blocking reactionary who has trimmed her audience.
This was called out by none other than one of the biggest earners reported, Ed Krassenstein, a notable leftist and no fan of Musk.
I want to address some things regarding Taylor Lorenz's Washington Post story.
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) July 14, 2023
1) I support most of her reporting.
2) Her story entitled "Far right Twitter influencers first on Elon Musk's monetization scheme" is a terrible piece of journalism
3) The article states, "On… pic.twitter.com/p890MYhcwc
Anti-Social Media – WASHINGTON POST
Some may want to say Taylor Lorenz has moxie and is brave. Those people are blind idiots. Lorenz is an ethical mess who is so self-consumed that she is incapable of self-reflection. As proof, Chaya Raichik of Libs Of Tik Tok shows screenshots of a text exchange she had with Lorenz for her latest article on the Twitter payouts. That Lorenz thought she would even get an answer in the form of anything helpful is itself hilarious, but we guess she needs to at least show that she reached out or risk getting exposed as lying about such, as happened last year.
But more revealing is that when Raichik turned the tables on Lorenz and asked her questions of a similar nature, she clammed right up about the subject.
Had a nice chat with Taylor Lorenz tonight… 👀. Cc: @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/8dtZWzFAtd
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 14, 2023
Legalized Press-titution – CBS NEWS
There was more hard news for the Disney company this week when it was released that crowds at the company's theme parks were significantly lower. Making this all the more notable was that as the rest of the business has been seen struggling – movies have lost a fortune, the streaming service is a money void, and subscriptions have dropped, and the TV channels are performing poorly and may be on the auction block – the theme parks have been a lone highlight as far as revenues. Until recently.
After news came out from a theme park news outlet that crowd sizes were diminishing, it was studied that in July, the attendance was its lowest in the past ten years. CBS News looked into the matter and tried to put the onus on high ticket prices, competition from other theme parks, and a host of other factors. While it brought up the feud with Governor Ron DeSantis, the outlet allowed for all manner of denial in that regard. The aspect of the company becoming a factory of unwatchable woke content and pushing away families was not a consideration, even though it is clear this has been leading to those losses in the other sectors of the company.
Disney World's crowds are getting smaller, signaling that the high entry costs to the theme park as well as competition from other destinations may be taking a toll on attendance, Wall Street Journal reporter Jacob Passy told CBS News. https://t.co/NiTShPDpmz
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 14, 2023
News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS
- So he was hot news days ago, but now…
It was hot news just a couple of days ago that Ray Epps was filing a lawsuit against Fox News and Tucker Carlson over what he says are false and defamatory accusations. The man who was seen compelling people to go into the capitol yet had never been arrested was further exposed as a notable figure when Tucker revealed, in his display of the January 6 tapes he showed for a few nights, that Epps was seen on site well after the times he had testified that he left the area.
Yet, after all the hype about the lawsuit, the press is notably quiet about the new aspect of the story – that he is about to be charged for his actions on that fateful day. The laughable aspect is that Epps claims that being charged will prove Fox News defamed him because they supposedly claimed he was a federal plant, but he cannot be one if the feds are charging him. Oh – he also blames Fox FOR the charges about to be brought against him. It seems he cannot possibly lose in this fever dream scenario he has crafted for himself.
It's about damn time ...
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 12, 2023
And ... here we GO! Ray Epps says he’s about to be charged for January 6, blames Fox (screenshots)https://t.co/rztSvihHOU
Low Octane Gas Lighting – MSNBC
- You may have it bad economically, but really you just THINK you have it bad economically.
We really were overdue for a Chris Hayes dose of condescension, and he really delivers now. Hayes attempts to tell people that the financial challenges so many are feeling are not really happening and that things are really going great. Well, were this true, he would be indicating that there were cases of people having anecdotal struggles, while the overall majority were enjoying a prosperous time of it. Except if that truly was the case, there would be no need for Hayes to come out and try convincing an audience of people how swell they were doing.
All you need to see is the opening portion, when he uses a graph to explain that inflation has slowed its pace from over a year ago. Allow me to explain for Chris in a way he might understand:
While inflation slowing to 3% is better news, it is not particularly good news because it means prices are still rising. They just are not rising as rapidly as a year ago – and that 3% increase is over that already inflated price point from last year. If you were paying $100 for groceries two years ago, then last year you paid $110 for the same items, and today you are paying $113. This is happening while numerous other economic factors are also higher year over year.
But Chris wants you to celebrate because although you are still getting stabbed with higher prices, the knife is not being twisted this time.
WATCH: @chrislhayes on the three main reasons for the mismatch between the strength of the economy and how people feel about it. pic.twitter.com/P0aD7OxoTt
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) July 13, 2023
Prose & Contradiction – MEDIAITE
- We need to show more respect for this nation's mass murderers.
At Mediaite, they were covering the way that Fox News was covering a news story, and as an on-air guest who is a police detective was describing an individual who was arrested, he was deeply insensitive because of some dismissive comments made about the accused individual's weight:
No one is going to accuse the suspect of being skinny, and I’m not surprised he left only a little bit of pizza. As far as a DNA detective or crime scene detective, that’s plenty to get evidence off.
There were snide allusions that the man's overweight nature contributed to his capture, as evidence was collected from discarded pizza boxes. This deeply problematic and insulting description was about Rex Herman, the man brought into custody under suspicion of being the Long Island serial killer, responsible for at least half a dozen murders over the past decade.
Fox News Guest Fat-Shames Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Suspect : ‘No One Is Gonna Accuse the Suspect of Being Skinny’ https://t.co/XMpPKFn4P5
— Brad Porcellato (@BradPorcellato) July 14, 2023
"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage of the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.
