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Riffed from the Headlines: Trump's Pants

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jun 08, 2021
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

This is Townhall's daily VIP feature, where we will focus coverage on the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation. We'll look to bring accountability to the mishaps, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in the mainstream media.

06.08.21 (Update)

Gilded Reframe – UNIVISION

So far, the vice president's trip to Central America on her inaugural effort at border control "challenges" has not gone very well. She was berated by one leader for not wearing a mask, had disagreements over policy on camera, has contradicted her prior positions on the matter, and then gave the administration challenging talking points with her declaration to immigrants, "Do not come. Do not come."

Faced with these conflicting optics, Univision did their job by attempting to put a happy spin on the trip. Their giddy anchor, Borja Voces, had this blast of news – Kamala has Mexican relatives! 

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This has to be the Hispanic version of, "Some of my best friends are Black!" We now have to go look up the Spanish translation for "cringe."

Low Octane Gas Lighting – ESQUIRE

You may have missed this detail from the past four years, but in the Senate, Mitch McConnell had been on a mission to bring down this nation with a wartime conflict. He did not do this, however, through any form of physical aggression, and you probably missed the attack because of your desire to lead a productive life, dealing with Covid, or because you are not a biased journalist with a slanted view of the nation.

At Esquire, they ran an excerpt from a book written by Jackie Calmes, "Dissent: The Radicalization of the Republican Party and Its Capture of the Court," and it is not an exaggeration to say this is a slightly skewed vision of legal appointments over the past four years. Mitch McConnell has always been rather upfront about his task in filling vacant judicial bench seats in the district, circuit, and Supreme Courts. At times, he was rather in-your-face about his approach to the job, but Calmes tries to suggest this had been done "quietly." She also suggests something further was at play.

"Inside the Conservative Movement's Long Con to Capture the Courts --

How Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell quietly installed hundreds of federal judges, waging an insidious war on the judicial branch bound to shape American life for decades to come—and not for the better."

The assigned task of filling court positions by McConnell was his waging of a war on the court system, and an insidious one at that! It seems as if that is enough for you to go by, thus saving yourself the $27.49 cover price.

DNC PR Firm – THE NEW YORK TIMES

This is the second day that the White House press briefing room has been at full capacity, and for the second day in a row, the pent-up journalists have been eager to get themselves on camera, on the record, and back on track with their duty. They just have not been so eager to ask questions about the administration. Either Trump, the Republicans, or those dastardly Democrat holdouts who will not eliminate the filibuster have been the primary focus. 

Katie Rogers of The Times is one of those making her return to the press room, and she was in full sycophant mode. She brought up the timely story of Kamala Harris on her border-strengthening trip to Central America, but this was not a question posed about policy – it was all about those damned Republicans going nuts about what Kamala said!

We have all had the experience on social media of being told you are livid over benign matters. Make a comment about policy, ask a question about an agenda item, or even make a joke about some sort of political flub and you can become accused of "losing your mind" or asked, "Why are you so enraged over this?" It is an infantile response on Facebook or Twitter, but it is even more obtuse to see a journalist resorting to this tactic. Rogers appealed to Jen Psaki's emotions with this line of questioning regarding whether Kamala Harris would ever make a trip to the border.

"Republicans and conservatives are – you know – going crazy on Twitter, sending pictures, sending video of her interview with Lester Holt saying, 'I've not been to Europe either.' Does the president think there is a scenario in which she should visit the border? And also the mounting criticism from conservatives, would that ever factor into his decision to send her down there? I mean, don't they have a point that if she has this task in front of her, should she not see the end cause as well as the root cause?"

So to reiterate – the conservatives and Republicans are described as "going crazy" over the issue, but at the same time, they also have a valid point. Well, as long as we can demonize those folks as being crazy, even as they are making a sane point you could agree with, then everything is in order.


Pre-Written Field Reports – ABC ACTION NEWS

With some breathless reporting, this Tampa affiliate gleefully touted the disgraced Florida Health Department "whistleblower" Rebekah Jones declared that she would run for Congress. This is exciting news, as she says she wants to challenge Matt Gaetz for his seat. Of course, left off of the report is the detail that she has repeatedly lied and contradicted herself – such as when she declared just two weeks ago she would never run for Congress. 

Also unexplored is the small matter that Jones is a resident of the state of Maryland. Certainly, most journalists would regard this as a trivial detail in the storyline. 

Gilded Reframe – NBC NEWS

  • Sahil Kapur makes an accurate point, but not a great point.

NBC's political reporter Kapur brought up a point about the filibuster because every objective and unbiased journalist is now required to lobby on behalf of getting this taken down for the benefit of the Democrats. He points out that Donald Trump had pushed for the removal of the filibuster numerous times over the past four years, and today, he is praising Joe Manchin for taking a stance and keeping it intact. 

It is a valid observation, save for the fact that Trump is no longer in office. The Republicans in the Senate, however, are still in office, and their position today opposing the removal of the filibuster is consistent with their refusal to do so on behalf of Trump. Uh, oh – now THAT defies the narrative! 

Additionally, there is something Kapur would prefer you do not explore – the Democrats pushing for the end of the filibuster today are the ones being inconsistent, as they used the filibuster a record amount of times last year to block anything proposed by Trump and the GOP.

06.08.21 (Original)

Anti-Social Media – THE WASHINGTON POST

It may be time to accept a new reality; we are incapable of doing anything without it being polluted by social activism. Sports, entertainment, fashion – all have already been injected with woke culture and virtue signaling. But this mission creep continues, and now we see that another leisure diversion has been affected. Bird watching is now in the social equity crosshairs, and not in the manner one might think, according to the Washington Post. Surprisingly the gripe is not that this is a largely caucasian pursuit or that privilege is built into the study. The problem rests with...the birds. 

The headline – "The racist legacy many birds carry" – says it all. This essentially means there is no escape from this mindset when the very object of an activity is the problem.

"The birding community faces a difficult debate about the names of species connected to enslavers, supremacists and grave robbers. As with the wider field of conservation, racism and colonialism are in ornithology's DNA, indelibly linked to its origin story. The challenge of how to move forward is roiling White ornithologists as they debate whether to change as many as 150 eponyms, names of birds that honor people with connections to slavery and supremacy."

Well, this should be fun. How many textbooks and birding guides will now have to be rewritten in order to properly designate the "Variegated Woke Thrush" or the "Virtue-tailed Ibis"?

First Amendment Strike Force – THE NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times did some masterful work digging into the effects of the social media ban of Donald Trump, and the paper came up with the details; it turns out his reach and influence have diminished! 

"When Facebook and Twitter barred Donald J. Trump from their platforms after the Capitol riot in January, he lost direct access to his most powerful megaphones. Since his ban and President Biden’s inauguration, he has posted statements online far less often."

The paper even made up a series of graphics to display this inactivity, and many in the media have been deeply impressed by these images. Picture it – after he was banned, the images show less social engagement. It is staggering to consider...if you are a hyper-dramatic journalist with a partisan bent. For most others, it is like pointing at a dark room after you switch off the lights. 

Legalized Press-titution – MSNBC

There is no surprise to see the network slobbering over Democrats, but the real comedy derives from the concept that Nicolle Wallace is still sold as some sort of right-of-center voice. In yet another blatant promotion for the Democrat bill to federalize the voting system, Wallace had on James Clyburn to discuss the challenges to the bill and detail the ways Sen. Joe Manchin is ruining everything by not rolling over to help kill the filibuster.

What made this segment trend over into the unseemly is the way Wallace is apparently adapting the Brian Stelter tactic of complete subservience to the interviewee. She introduced Clyburn to her show, and frankly, it could have carried a viewer warning for mature content.

"I'm going to be really brief because I just need you to fill me up with wisdom here."

There was no saxophone solo playing in the background, for the record.

Presentation Paradox – CNN

Chris Cuomo invited CNN fixture Dr. Sanjay Gupta on his program to discuss the various problems the country enacted, leading to the deaths of many across the country. Rather brazen of the man who spent significant airtime minutes last year burnishing his brother's image while he was ushering the deaths of many New York residents, then hiding the data. But this is Chris Cuomo, and he regards journalistic ethics as something the weak-minded people in the business adhere to, as we know.

Adding to the amusement was the fact that Dr. Gupta has a book coming out in the fall, and as Cuomo introduced him, he says, "That is a book – you know, I don't hawk products – you gotta read the book."

The man who says he does not hawk products had previously – on the very same show – interviewed Mary Trump, so she could promote her new book. (Yes, she has another on the way, cashing in on her uncle's name, whom she despises.)

Pulitzer Prize Nomination – USA TODAY

It might be difficult to find a better representation that typifies our contemporary media and its relationship with Donald Trump. Following the speech he delivered Saturday evening to the North Carolina Republican Party, Donald Trump was a fixture on social media, as people insisted there was video showing that he wore his pants backward. Now, anyone even entertaining the likelihood of this taking place should be mocked roundly, but what then is to be said of a news outlet dedicating its time to fact-checking this prospect?

Imagine being the stringer over the weekend tasked with studying Donald Trump's crotch. And to illustrate just how ardently these intrepid truth-detectors were focused on their mission, they relied on no less than five sources in order to determine that this was a FALSE story and that Trump had, in fact, worn his slacks in the traditional fashion.

News Avoidance Syndrome – THE NEW YORK TIMES

It has almost approached the point of saturation and where you are almost tired of hearing about Dr. Anthony Fauci's numerous contradictions, his excuses being made, and the defenses offered up by so many in the press. Unless you are a NY Times subscriber. 

As Leah has detailed today – The Times has yet to even be bothered with covering Fauci's email trove.