01.29.24
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – SNOPES
We love the fact-checkers, we really do. Their obvious use as a Democratic Party tool is so laughably blatant you cannot help but laugh. Whether it is how they reorganize facts to "prove" Republicans are wrong, focusing more on the GOP (Senator Ted Cruz sports more PolitiFact corrections than President Joe Biden) or ignoring Biden's numerous fact-telling errors by covering false claims by anonymous randos on social media, they are just precious little jesters.
Another component they share is the condescending smugness in their delivery – as if the most arcane details are common knowledge and the cherry-picked minutiae focused prove that you are an under-educated mope. Case in point, this weekend, as Snopes attempted to rush in and rescue President Biden from well-deserved ridicule when he was pictured wearing a blue-collar worker's hard hat backward.
The smug geniuses came in to inform us, the rabble, that we did not know what we were talking about and that lunchpail Joe was, in fact, wearing the hat incorrectly, except for the small detail that he clearly had the safety gear on backward, with the tension dial of the internal hat chassis, which is supposed to rest at the base of the skull, showing broadly on his forehead. These viscounts of vérité even unraveled themselves by showing the worker whose hat was borrowed for the photo-op pictured in another scene wearing his hat in the correct fashion. They then had to issue an Editor's Note and reverse their judgment on the claim.
Just your regular reminder that the "fact" checkers are not bidden to follow the facts, but are predisposed to analyze based on the narrative.
— Brad Slager: Flips On The Highbeams In Fog Of War (@MartiniShark) January 27, 2024
Here is @Snopes forced to correct its initial correction, because it reflexively defends Biden; facts are secondary. pic.twitter.com/NwTpqRzehV
Low Octane Gas Lighting – SKY NEWS
Those Jews need to learn their place…literally.
Among the press outlets displaying outward antagonism toward Israel in its war with Hamas, one of the more outward has been Britain's Sky News. In just the latest case of direct antagonism toward the Jewish people, we see this exchange between Belle Donati as she is speaking with Minister Danny Danon of the Likud Party, and she dares suggest that Jews during the Holocaust were "voluntarily" relocated.
“The sort of voluntary relocation of many Jewish people during the Holocaust.”
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) January 26, 2024
Voluntary relocation?! That’s what a Sky News host said earlier today.
It’s so depressing that we find ourselves in this position, in which an established broadcaster could say such a thing. pic.twitter.com/8gA2ZpS939
Once called out on this note, she attempted to steamroll Danon to move past her insulting comment, but he had none of it. Sky News has since had to come out and apologize for Donati's comment – an apology, tellingly, not issued by Belle Donati herself.
Sky News - The anti-Semitic pro-climate hoax trump hating fake news broadcaster have been forced into an official apology for their horrific behaviour this afternoon. Apology here. And the "incident" in the first comment. @Ofcom pic.twitter.com/UVVCL0WAHQ
— 🇬🇧RonEnglish🇬🇧🏴 (@RonEng1ish) January 26, 2024
Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS
So, reading the actual ruling was too much to expect?
As the tensions between the White House and the state of Texas over the border squabble continue to increase, it is clear where the collective media are coming down on the issue. Repeatedly, we are served reports and commentary on how Governor Greg Abbott and his state military units are violating the Supreme Court ruling regarding using razor wire along the border locations.
What is being consistently (intentionally) misreported is that SCOTUS commanded that Texas is forbidden from doing so. This is inaccurate, as the ruling simply said the federal border agents were permitted to take down the razor wire in areas it thinks necessary, but the state is in no way ordered to halt installing it.
CNN's falsely implies that SCOTUS told Texas it can't put up more razor wire, Rosa Flores declares that "Texas is in defiance. They are deploying more razor wire"
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 26, 2024
(1/2) pic.twitter.com/2QrYmCD4W3
Presentation Paradox – THE ATLANTIC
Remind us again why we are supposed to call him a conservative…?
For reasons only clear to himself, David Frum took it upon himself to rehabilitate the reputation of turn-of-the-century President Woodrow Wilson.
You know, the Democrat. The one who was a rampant racist to the extreme of wanting to RE-segregate the government. The one who instituted the payroll tax and IRS. Frum wants to uncancel that president…as any true "conservative" would surely want to do.
Next Saturday, February 3, marks 100 years since the death of President Woodrow Wilson. No US president has suffered such a calamitous collapse in reputation from peak to now. In the issue of the Atlantic that ships Monday, I argue the case for uncancelling Wilson.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 27, 2024
Pre-Written Field Reports – SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
"Man, what a crazy wing-nut Trump is, using this valid term we never heard of! What a kook!"
Understand first, the insulated bubble-dwellers in the entertainment industry hold disdain for those who disagree and love to pose as if they are the true holders of knowledge. With that in mind, we turn to SNL and the "Weekend Update" segment, where Donald Trump was once again the target of barbs because Joe Biden has not done anything mockable since…the opening of this column.
Host Colin Jost (Harvard, 2004) commented about Donald Trump's mental acuity – not Joe Biden's, mind you – and referenced a speech he gave where he spoke about the term "de-banking." The Urbane Jost was not aware of this being a known financial term, nor apparently the hyper-educated writing staff, and not even much of the refined audience members.
If you are "proving" Trump's impacted cranial dexterity by mocking him for correctly using a valid financial term, that would indicate the mental sloth would be found with the accusers.
Colin Jost and Michael Che with Weekend Update! pic.twitter.com/h4uGP4T7Xt
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) January 28, 2024
Both Kinds of Standards – NBC NEWS
In Friday's column, we covered how NBC News had a piece it was working on by contacting Chaya Raichik, from The Libs of TikTok account, about her "claim" (which she did not actually make) that Boeing and some airlines were having safety issues due to having drag employees and other DEI issues going public.
NBC News reporter David Ingram put out his piece, and in it, he makes the declaration that conservatives have now made air[ports and airlines the latest front lines in the culture war:
The topic may be tantalizing for Republicans as they attempt to fire up their voter base ahead of the 2024 presidential election: They can capitalize on widespread interest in news about air travel while also appealing to conservatives’ long-standing criticism of affirmative action and other diversity programs.
As usual, the focus is on conservatives seizing on a topic and highlighting airline safety, but there is little in the way of exploring why the topic emerged in the first place. The reason DEI is coming up is that reports have emerged of companies touting their hiring policies and one airline even boasting its drag flight crew. These coincide with stories just this month of a plane's door flying off, another losing its wheel during takeoff, and another case of a plane grounded when its wing was discovered to be missing bolts – noticed not by maintenance mechanics but by a passenger.
So sure, it is conservatives making up an issue again that was placed before them.
New from me today: How right-wing influencers turned airplanes and airports into culture war battlegrounds https://t.co/1IOC41BKzG via @nbcnews (Spoiler: A lot of it happened on this website.)
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) January 28, 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.
