Get access to Brad Slager's "Riffed From the Headlines," a daily VIP feature where he looks to bring accountability to the mainstream media. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
Presentation Paradox – NBC NEWS
Wait a second, Tom, did Trump actually take over control of Canada after all?!
You just knew this was going to happen after news of a Delta plane crashing upon landing came out on Monday. Tom Costello was covering the breaking news and saw fit to invoke the slashing of government budgets and the staff cuts at the FAA. Costello intones gravity as he introduces these harsh realities, but then he does have to relent for just a moment.
In order to deliver some reality.
Costello, you can tell, is slightly bothered as he lowers the intensity of his speech to deliver the inconvenient details – “Now, this is a Canadian air traffic control tower, and it is under Canadian authority…”
Recommended
NBC’s Tom Costello blames President Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE for the Delta plane crash in - Toronto. Yes. Toronto.
— Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) February 17, 2025
These people are literal swine. pic.twitter.com/8EhnG6pTx1
Both Kinds of Standards – CNN
It makes one wonder why they even bring in an expert in the first place!
In a discussion of the Toronto plane crash, Dana Bash had a panel together, but they first turned to Pete Muntean, the network’s aviation expert. Muntean looked over the specifics of that incident in Canada and came to the sane conclusion that there was nothing about it to connect to any other recent aviation incidents.
Ms. Bash thanked Muntean for his wise analysis – and then immediately dismissed what he had to say. She turned to her panelists and promptly launched into how Trump was behind these accidents:
As he said, there's no thread between all of those except the obvious, which is that planes are crashing, which is frightening, but this is happening against the backdrop of massive cuts across the federal government, including at the FAA. I'm just going to put some up on the screen. Hundreds of FAA employees have been laid off as part of Elon Musk going through all the federal agencies.
These ridiculous hacks.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 18, 2025
CNN’s own aviation expert tells them there’s no connective thread between these recent airline crashes but Dana Bash immediately goes into making it about Trump anyway. pic.twitter.com/CA5dXw9pQ5
Prose & Contradiction – NBC News
Just let Kelly get all of her supposition out of the way before closing with a significant detail.
In coverage of the accident on the “NBC Nightly News,” Kelly O’Donnell delivered a lengthy edited segment about all of the jibs cut by Trump in the FAA, as well as many other agencies, and it was filled with prognostications about “alarming, real-world incidents.” After the minutes long segment, fill-in host Tom Llamas spoke live with O’Donnell to close it out, and in her final comment, she barely delivers this disqualifying nugget:
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation says the FAA is continuing to hire air traffic controllers, and has retained employees who perform critical safety functions.
NBC's @KellyO'donnell intones grave effects Trump's firing of govt. employees has on airline safety.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) February 18, 2025
Then, in a barely uttered coda to her scare report, she briefly drops a nugget that the FAA is actually hiring MORE air traffic controllers.
(at 16:45)https://t.co/0Wpyv7vVIh
Stealth Story Evolution – ASSOCIATED PRESS
“We’ll fix it in post!”
Just as the AP is garnering loud sympathy from across the news spectrum for being disinvited from Oval Office press gatherings and other events with Trump, it seems the White House has been wise to make this move, based on the recent coverage of the FAA from the news syndicate.
In a report on some of the firings at the FAA, the AP stated air traffic controllers were being let go, and that among those fired, the “official” DOGE Facebook account was harassing workers.
Then the revisions began, the headline was changed, and the White House had to come out and declare there is no Facebook presence of DOGE. Also, no notification is on the article that any of these changes have taken place.
Embarrassing AP Report on Air Traffic Controllers Proves the White House Wise in Barring the Outlet
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 18, 2025
https://t.co/i9ogU6eumd
