09.22.23
Legalized Press-titution – MSNBC
- The man who cannot manage a teleprompter will run the planet?
It has been an embarrassingly bad week for Joe Biden from a performance standpoint. His speaking, actions, and other comments he made reveal his decline is probably accelerating. On Wednesday, he met with the president of Brazil and was repeatedly seen in a condition that should concern most. This followed his performance at the United Nations on Tuesday, where his diminished faculties were on display. More slurring, more fractured syntax, and nonsense like saying he wanted to work with China on "accelerating the climate crisis."
Despite all of this disqualifying behavior, on MSNBC, Peter Alexander was parroting the words of the administration. He strained to sell us on the concept that Joe Biden on display at the UN would be a power grab moment and that the absence of other national leaders meant this was the time for Joe to rise to the level of President of the World. Just unreal, this undiluted fawning on display.
Watch as @PeterAlexander tells @MitchellReports - with a straight face - that the stumbling Joe Biden could be considered "The President Of The World". pic.twitter.com/pFV93b8Mi9
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) September 22, 2023
News Avoidance Syndrome – WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS
- When one reporter in the room has the stones to challenge the administration.
Karine Jean-Pierre makes it a habit of walking away from the White House Press Room podium during tough questions, and many times this is a result of Peter Doocy pressing her with uncomfortable queries. In the latest, she attempted to deflect his line of questioning about the border to the Republicans, and when he would not allow it, she shut him down and moved to another reporter.
As Joe Concha points out, it would be a normal move during previous administrations for others to step up and try to continue the discourse, but these days the press room is content to follow her lead and move on to more comfortable topics.
And no other reporters in the room followed up on Doocy's question, thereby allowing her to get away with it. Worthless. https://t.co/7YuS6CdAQG
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) September 22, 2023
Gilded Reframe – THE BULWARK
- Saving lives by making the ability to end them more available.
We have drifted from covering the saps over at the Bad Ship The Bulwark since they have rendered themselves as little more than a perpetual Republican gripe machine. All pretexts of that site straining to deliver a conservative viewpoint have been completely abandoned. We only bring them up now because the latest essentially cements that reality.
Nikki Haley was making the rounds over at Fox News and one of her policy platforms is surrounding abortion, and how she might be able to promote a plan that would attract moderates and independents. Will Saletan hits upon a novel approach to a pro-life agenda; just offer up a pro-choice option:
She says we should take the issue out of Washington, respect each woman’s personal experience, and let the people closest to the issue decide. She’s right about these principles. And there’s a simple policy that would honor them. It’s called freedom of choice.
These "conservative" dolts…
A bunch of RINOs have devised Pro-Life In Name Only.
"A pro-choice policy won’t give you the satisfaction of decreeing an end to abortion. It will challenge you to find other ways to prevent abortions, by working with women, not against them. But it will honor the principles Nikki Haley articulates." https://t.co/6ZrJ01t2hr
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) September 22, 2023
Both Kinds of Standards – CNN
- See, when THEY do it, that is considered bad…
The announcement came that 92-year-old Rupert Murdoch will be stepping away from his role helming the monolithic Fox empire he has built. In response, CNN's Abby Phillip ran a lengthy montage of items she found to be objectionable over the decades from Fox News. The message, un-subtly delivered, was that Murdoch helped usher in what was described as our "Wounded Democracy."
Of course, nothing approaching introspection regarding CNN's participation in these injuries to our nation will ever take place.
Interesting there were no clips about Russian collusion, the “fake” Hunter Biden laptop, Ivermectin is a horse pill, how there is no crisis at the border… https://t.co/w2i0gbbl7M
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) September 22, 2023
Anti-Social Media – NEW YORKER
In an article that feels like either there was a looming deadline with nothing better to submit or just as likely a piece pitched only to then find little of the expected content, Jill Lepore delves into the life of Elon Musk. The conclusion; his grandfather J.N. Haldeman was not a good man. After declaring that the elder was anti-semitic and pro-Apartheid, it appears after this discovery Lepore struggled to bring anything meaningful to the discussion.
So when faced with the reality she was essentially on the verge of trying to condemn Elon for the sins of his grandfather (who passed away when Xitter's owner was but three years old), Jill strains to make a relevant point on why this matters…to anyone today, in any capacity.
After delivering a lengthy biography of the man she forces herself to make a desperate conclusion:
But Haldeman’s legacy casts light on what social media does: the reason that most people don’t know about Musk’s grandfather’s political writings is that in his lifetime social media did not exist. Elon Musk’s grandfather’s political views are not Musk’s responsibility. But what would happen to those rantings, if they were posted on X today, really does lie at his doorstep.
Elon Musk’s grandfather was a pro-apartheid, antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Although his views are not Musk’s responsibility, “what would happen to those rantings, if they were posted on X today, really does lie at his doorstep,” Jill Lepore writes. https://t.co/pvzxybJ7vT
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 22, 2023
Pulitzer Prize Nomination – CNBC
At RedState, we (dis)honor ridiculously empty news reports with The Ricecake Award, recognizing the best in content-free reporting. This one is easily included and probably compounded based on where it is coming from.
We are sure there might be someone who is interested that the septuagenarian singer Cher does not eat cheese. We are not sure, however, what relevance this item could possibly have for those seeking financial information on CNBC.
Cher stopped eating cheese in 1991: How changes to her diet then keep her healthy now at 77 https://t.co/Bxb2X5B2tc
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 20, 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.
