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Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – WASHINGTON POST
Yesterday we covered how CNN was reporting on a police shooting in Chicago, where motorist Dexter Reed opened fire on police before he was gunned down. The framing was all about the police acting inappropriately, not that a traffic stop provoked the driver to shoot first.
The Washington Post is now following suit. In a report by Jennifer Hassan she makes a point of framing everything as Reed being an innocent bystander, opening with a quote from his mother saying “He was just riding around in his car - and they killed him.” Then there is the use of a graduation picture from high school, for the man who was 26 years old.
It takes more than half a dozen sympathetic paragraphs before you see that Reed fired at police first, with light mention of him defying police orders, attempting to flee the scene, and nothing to be said of his criminal past with numerous weapons charges.
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Newly released body-cam videos show plainclothes Chicago police officers shooting at Dexter Reed, 26. Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed a “transparent” investigation. https://t.co/zJlkDgpm4F
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 10, 2024
Matching Media Memorandum – ASSOCIATED PRESS
Following suit with this media narrative on the Reed shooting is the AP, going so far as to also use the decade-old graduation photo of Dexter Reed. Also like the Post, it took the AP hundreds of words and 6 paragraphs before getting around to mentioning Reed opened fire on police.
Also notable in the AP report is the deep exploration on the background activities of the police, but no mention of Reed having been arrested last Fall, and at the time of the incident he was facing trial for three aggravated weapons charges and an additional one for illegal gun possession.
Deadly Chicago traffic stop where police fired 96 shots raises serious questions about use of force https://t.co/Pc8AhbewSH
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 11, 2024
First Amendment Strike Force – CBS NEWS
Yet we would be charged with threatening democracy if we suggested this shows governmental collusion.
The House Judiciary Committee held its hearing on “Fighting for a Free Press: Protecting Journalists and their Sources”. This was the hearing we had discussed recently where recently deposed journalist Catherine Herridge would testify, explaining what took place at the time she was let go, how her personal effects had been held by the network, and what it was she was in the process of working on when this played out. It is a rather damning dose of testimony:
CBS News’ decision to seize my reporting records crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed by any media organization. Multiple sources said they were concerned that by working with me to expose government corruption and misconduct they would be identified and exposed. CBS News locked me out of the building and seized hundreds of pages of my reporting files, including confidential source information.
There is no way to hear this and conclude that there was not some level of governmental involvement in the decisions and actions taken by the network. Herridge is already challenging a ruling where a court has ordered her to expose her confidential contacts in an unrelated case. Now we learn that as she had been working on a piece on government malfeasance, she was locked out and her personal files confiscated in an unprecedented fashion.
Nothing about this sounds normal, at all.
Legalized Press-titution – NBC NEWS
Can they reshoot this scene, or do you just want to fix it in post?
This “impromptu” question about the recent passage of an abortion law in Arizona from a network White House correspondent seems a little…off, we’ll say.
We here at RFTH do not want to state definitively that Peter Alexander from NBC News was working in coordination with the White House on a framed question, one in which Joe Biden was prepared ahead of time to answer with a scripted answer. Instead, we will show you the exchange and have you conclude is this was the case. Especially considering the question was asked in a manner that follows directly the narratives seen across the Democrats’ talking points, there is a lot here that causes a double-take:
Alexander uses the often-heard phrase “Civil War era”, in regard to this particular law.
Biden has an immediate rejoiner that was sound-clip ready, despite allegedly making an off-the-cuff response.
As Biden fumbles the answer, and after spitting out the correct line, he immediately bows and removes his earpiece, calling the presser to be over.
.@PeterAlexander: "What do you say to the people of Arizona right now who are witnessing a law go in place that dates back to the Civil War era."
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 10, 2024
President Biden: "Elect me. I'm in the 21st century." pic.twitter.com/Y0QRI8gjcQ
Both Kinds of Standards – DISNEY
So her rights are not at the same level as the corporation’s rights?
The next Marvel theatrical release should be entitled, “Irony Man”.
Some time ago Gina Carano was fired by the Disney Corporation for posts she made on social media that the company found to be inciteful about the Jewish holocaust. (At the same time her “Mandalorian” co-star Pedro Pascal made far more incendiary posts about Nazis and received no such rebuke.) Carano has brought suit against Disney for wrongful termination, and the company's response is rather precious.
The company argues that it was for it to fire Carano - over her comments - due to ITS 1st Amendment rights.
Disney argued Tuesday that it had a First Amendment right to fire Gina Carano, the actor who played a bounty hunter on “The Mandalorian,” after she allegedly trivialized the Holocaust in an Instagram post. https://t.co/wdSFILzXtN
— Variety (@Variety) April 10, 2024
Stealth Story Evolution – LOS ANGELES TIMES
Okay, look – it is common practice in newsrooms to have a collection of obituaries pre-written for notable individuals, so that when/if their time of passing arrives they have an entry at the ready to publish on the quick. That said, when the news broke of famed highway user O.J. Simpson having died from cancer it was rather curious to see an odd entry in his lengthy obit in the LA Times.
Nestled deep in the piece there is a passage about Simpson’s activities when leaving after his his time served, yet it mistakenly read as someone else:
Long before the city woke up on a Fall morning in 2017, Trump walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center in Reno, a free man for the first time in 9 years.
The paper has gone in and fixed this passage, but it shows no CORRECTION notification, or Editor’s Note indicating the change.
I mean... there's no shot this wasn't intentional. https://t.co/PepfeIMIht
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) April 11, 2024
