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Low-Octane Gaslighting – NBC NEWS
This is – literally – what gaslighting looks like.
This weekend, Kristen Welker had Marco Rubio on as a guest on "Meet the Press," and it is becoming clear that while Welker prepares herself for her episodes, frequently what she does not prepare for are conservatives who are themselves prepared. Sunday, she was primed to come at Rubio with several accusatory introductions to topics, but the Florida senator handled things calmly and rationally. That is, he surprised the hostess by arming himself with the facts.
After some pointed questions on immigration, it turned to the 2020 election, and when Rubio mentioned the media blackout on covering the Hunter Biden laptop, Welker was reduced to stammering.
WELKER: Nothing has been censored on this program. Hillary Clinton did concede…
RUBIO: Did you guys cover that laptop for- Joe Biden in 2020?
WELKER: Absolutely, we covered the laptop…
RUBIO: It was banned, you couldn't even talk about it in…social media…
During the election acceptance portion of her contentious interview with @marcorubio on NBC's , @kwelkernbc falsely asserts that the media DID NOT censor the Hunter Biden laptop story. pic.twitter.com/smIBoEvV2O
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 19, 2024
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – MSNBC
When the journalists themselves are most in need of fact-checkers.
It has been a tough week for Jen Psaki. On the day of the release of her new book, it was discovered she included a deep factual error about Joe Biden checking his watch at a Marine honor ceremony. The real amusement was that it was in a passage where she claimed to be addressing misinformation. Now, in selling her book, she steps in another wildly inaccurate claim, making her look all the more ridiculous.
Psaki sat with Kara Fisher for an interview, and considering Kara herself recently looked bad when she called opposing college protesters "unAmerican" (as they were chanting "Death to America"), it is not surprising this discussion went sideways. Psaki was, as usual, looking to insult Donald Trump, and she took issue with his Space Force venture – specifically, the naming of that agency:
- PSAKI: The name, there, like, hurt by the branding, the name. So, let me just say that. That was what was going on in my head.
- SWISHER: What would you call them?
- PSAKI: I don't know, but Space Force is literally the name of a Steve Carrel movie. Could we have done something different?
The comedy here, of course, is that this journalism expert is unaware that the actual Space Force predated the Netflix show based on it, entitled "Space Force." These are the people who consider themselves the best and brightest, and lecture down to us, the rabble they consider to be the doltish and uneducated.
VIDEO - Psaki: ‘Space Force Was Literally the Name of a Steve Carrell Movie, Could We Have Done Something Different?’ https://t.co/pkfu0O7fCo
— Grabien (@GrabienMedia) May 21, 2024
Stealth Story Evolution – NEWSWEEK
It was rather jarring news earlier when it was announced that Tucker Carlson was set to have his program broadcast on Russian State television. It was far less jarring later on when that became revised. Numerous times over, in fact. Newsweek may have based its initial report on either a Ukraine or Russian news site. Reaching out to Tucker Carlson, or his people, was seemingly never a consideration.
Neil Patel, one of Tucker's people, confirmed that they were not contacted and detailed that the story was entirely erroneous.
The Tucker Carlson Network has not done any deals with state media in any country. Whoever is currently pretending to be the old Newsweek brand would know that if they had checked with us before printing like news companies are supposed to do. https://t.co/xbukz58F88
— Neil Patel (@NeilPatelTDC) May 21, 2024
This led to Newsweek running an update, then a correction, and re-editing the piece, and then changing the headline as the article now stipulates that Russian TV merely ran clips of Tucker's show on one of its broadcasts.
Also notable, there is no mention of the revised headline, which completely alters the thrust of the article.
— Brad Slager - Scrubbing Down In a Bloodbath (@MartiniShark) May 21, 2024
You can see the original in the URL, in which it was said Tucker "launches his show on Russian state TV". This was a complete cock-up by the news outlet. pic.twitter.com/P2dwLF89uI
Reporting on the Mirror – THE U.S. SENATE
They are relying on a failed industry in order to save a failed industry. Our Government!
As we detail frequently in this space, the news industry is currently in an economic quagmire. Layoffs are a regular news item, and on the regular, we get reports of newspapers and magazines either shutting down or at the very least suspending their print editions. The government has concocted a plan to help save this dying industry.
In the Senate, they have proposed the "Delivery For Democracy Act" as an aid of sorts for periodicals. Facing diminishing delivery options (that damned Uber has lured all the drivers!), outlets rely mostly on the US Postal Service. The USPS wants to raise postage rates, but this new legislation will help keep rates lower because the post office is not meeting delivery guidelines to justify the hikes:
The Deliver for Democracy Act would carry on this tradition and help news outlets overcome the current crisis of local journalism by incentivizing reliable postal service and limiting excessive rate increases. Specifically, it would require the Postal Service to either achieve at least a 95% on-time delivery rate for periodicals or an improvement of at least 2 percentage points to unlock its 2 percent surcharge authority for that class of mail.
The reason for the postage increase is to attempt to offset losses in the postal service. The current Postmaster General imposed a new plan in 2021 to bring the service to a state of profitability, with expectations that it would be operating a neutral revenue system by this point in time. On its last financial report, the USPS was operating with a $6.5 billion loss.
The News/Media Alliance praises @SenPeterWelch & @SenatorRounds for introducing the bipartisan #DeliverforDemocracy Act legislation, to limit excessive @USPS rate increases and incentivizing reliable postal service delivery. https://t.co/R4jsAx1qzU
— News/Media Alliance (@newsalliance) May 21, 2024
Both Kinds of Standards – BBC
- But was he "austere"?! We need to know how much to revere the tyrant!
It really never fails with the press; when a Republican passes away, they go out of their way to highlight the negatives and any controversies, and if it is a terrorist leader or some similar level of oppressive figure who passed, they strive to paint them in a neutral light. So goes it now as President Raisi of Iran was found to have perished in a helicopter crash.
The man dubbed a "butcher" by his people and worked to exterminate dissidents and others he found disfavor with inside his country is described by the BBC as having a "mixed legacy."
President Ebrahim Raisi's mixed legacy in Iran https://t.co/RyOfmI3ciB
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 20, 2024
