01.10.24
Reporting on the Mirror – MSNBC
This might be considered falling on the sword already in your back.
The embattled Mehdi Hasan was on the air this weekend, but do not get used to it. The controversial pundit who helped drive down his network's ratings during the breakout of the Israel-Hamas War – while all others saw significant gains – announced that he was leaving the network.
This seems to be more than a formality, considering he had recently been removed from hosting two programs. His announcement feels more like MSNBC showed him the door, and he was now declaring he is about to walk through that door.
Prominent Muslim journalist Mehdi Hasan has quit MSNBC rather than accept demotion from anchor to contributor. https://t.co/55wAwqqYKT
— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) January 9, 2024
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – BUSINESS INSIDER
Recommended
We may need to come up with a new category here at RFTH: Revenge Journalism, maybe? There could be a new pattern developing where refusal to investigate a story shifts, and an investigation is initiated toward the accusers.
We are not even a fortnight into the new year, and already the press is looking even more dysfunctional. After weeks of the bulk of the press either making excuses for former Harvard President Claudine Gay's lengthy plagiarism history or blaming conservatives for weaponizing it, now comes word they are taking action. One of Gay's biggest critics has been billionaire alum Bill Ackman, and, as a result, Business Insider decided to look into his wife's work while at MIT and concluded that SHE was guilty of plagiarism due to using Wikipedia for her work, in violation of that school's paper protocols.
But B.I. did not do its own homework. It turns out what they called "plagiarism" was actually her using it simply to define words, and her paper predated the MIT policy on using Wikipedia. Now, Mr. Ackman is in scorched-Earth mode regarding both Harvard and Business Insider's publisher.
A fun fact:
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 9, 2024
Our lawyers used the Wayback Machine to check @MIT's plagiarism policy back when Neri wrote her thesis in 2009.
It turns out that MIT's academic integrity handbook did not require citation or even mention Wikipedia until 2013, four years after Neri wrote her…
Both Kinds of Standards – WASHINGTON POST
Are we seriously doing this now…?
Remaining on the subject, while the press has been busy avoiding the Claudine Gay scandal and telling us it is no big deal, here comes the Washington Post with a nothingburger story along the same lines. Former Texas Congress member Maya Flores is accused, we guess, of posting photos of food online that are said to have originated at other sites.
Yes, they finally looking into the matter of…plagiarized food pictures.
Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Tex.), the first Mexican-born woman in Congress who is running to win back her seat, is now facing “Grubgate” after allegedly posting photos of food online that users say originated on other sites and presenting it as her own. https://t.co/tLzVSiAflY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 9, 2024
Anti-Social Media – CNN
In one of the more innocuous and downright ridiculous media stories this young month, we are seeing a "controversy," we guess, between ABC and ESPN. This is the ongoing unter-drama between Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel, regarding a joke told about the Epstein Client List, which the alleged comedian has taken extremely seriously.
Oliver Darcy, reporting on the dust-up, clearly sides with Kimmel and regards this entire ridiculous affair as something of import…for some reason:
The Disney and ESPN chiefs have both been conspicuously silent as sports shock jock Pat McAfee very publicly uses their air to host a weekly conspiracy program with injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers — an off-the-rails affair that recently tarred and feathered Jimmy Kimmel within the Magic Kingdom's own walls.
This…is truly not that big of a matter. It feels more like Darcy wants this to be a major story when really few could be motivated beyond mild amusement at the melodramatics – from both Kimmel and Darcy:
The only thing Rodgers couldn't muster up the courage to do? Publicly apologize to Kimmel — a trait he currently shares with Iger and Pitaro, both of whom have not said a word as their late-night star has seen his reputation repeatedly called into question and sullied on ESPN.
Well, Jimmy can console himself on his faining couch – Rodgers has been dropped from appearing on The Pat McAfee Show.
JUST IN: Aaron Rodgers is suspended from appearing on ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" for the rest of the season after his beef with 'comedian' Jimmy Kimmel.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 10, 2024
Rodgers p*ssed off a lot of people. Good.
McAfee said he was "happy" Rodgers wouldn't be back on the show because of all… pic.twitter.com/57ho5hl6A6
Pounce of Prevention – POLITICO
The story of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin being in the hospital is a bit of a story. The fact that nobody knew he was incapacitated and not able to work for days, with even the White House being kept in the dark about Austin's unavailability, is a major story.
Politico, however, does not see that as the main story. No, it is that the Republicans…noticed this happened.
As Austin controversy widens, Republicans find a new weapon against Biden https://t.co/JUnm0LWq9l
— POLITICO (@politico) January 9, 2024
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"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.
