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Joy Reid Shows She's the Master Practitioner of Hyperbole

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Sep 06, 2021
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"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage on the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation. We'll look to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.

09.05.21

Blue-Anon – MSNBC

  • Joy Reid has renamed Texas repeatedly last week.

To say that Joy Reid is a master practitioner of hyperbole is to, ironically, traffic in understatement. There is no story about the Right that is not considered to be the worst example and worthy of the worst comparison she can come up with. 

The Texas Fetal Heartbeat Law has her spinning off onto all manner of worst-case comparisons that might find fertile ground with her audience. Here are just a few of her latest dramatic equivalencies.

- RUSSIA – "Texas is just a small Soviet Republic at this point."

- AFGHANISTAN – She coaxes her guest to say, "There is an American Taliban that is weirdly similar in so many ways to the Middle Eastern Islamist terrorists."

- GILEAD – "By next summer, we could be living in our own version of 'The Handmaid’s Tale.'"

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – ROLLING STONE

Rolling Stone Magazine came out with a blistering report about a flood of Ivermectin poisonings in one Oklahoma hospital that overran the ER to such an extent that people with gunshot wounds had to wait outside due to the unavailability of beds and overloaded medical staff. It turned out there were some minuscule problems with the story, only beginning with the magazine relying upon the testimony of a lone doctor. He was not a staff physician, he had never treated Covid or Ivermectin cases, and he had not worked at the location for over two months.

The hospital issued a statement and even rewrote its web page to reflect that the story was completely inaccurate, including the announcement that it had not even treated one case of Ivermectin poisoning. This did not stop many large-scale outlets from repeating the story, all without having placed even one call to the hospital to confirm data or get a statement. Drew Holden's thread lays out just how many in the press ran with this fake story.

News Avoidance Syndrome – CNN

  • Only a problem when THOSE people do it.

On his lightly regarded weekend broadcast, Jim Acosta followed CNN's corporate policy and railed loudly against Fox News. You know, because there is nothing else of import happening in the world this week. But his entire message about fake news and misinformation comes off as completely neutered, considering it took place while the media complex was repeating the fake Rolling Stone report, which he never managed to cover on his show.

Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • Interesting how they all have the same message when everyone shares the same source.

The latest jobs report came out, and the promised roaring comeback economy still has yet to materialize. Joe Biden, Mr. President Buckstopswithme, has managed to once again find a cause for strife beyond his reach. This time, the new bad numbers are due to the new bad virus.

As Christina Pushaw gives us a slew of echoing examples, note how many news outlets are not quoting Joe here but present the analysis as their own.

DNC PR Firm – THE HILL

  • The (D) beside her name cancels out any checkmark.

It is a rather odd prospect when a politician from Massachusetts leaves Washington, D.C., in order to campaign for the governor of California and chooses to slander Florida's leader. I'm sure Gavin Newsom was thrilled to listen to her warbling on about Ron DeSantis – whose name has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the recall election effort. Maybe bringing up the governor who is letting his citizens run free is a bad move in the state where Newsom is embattled for running his state like a gulag.

The Hill, meanwhile, just posts her invective here without a scant amount of research or correction. The facts are that the funding she mentions is only in regards to the salaries of school board members who are violating the law, and they are forbidden to reallocate other school funds to compensate. That is too much journalism work for those at The Hill.