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After Bemoaning Fox for Ditching News, Stelter Raves About CNN's Emmy for a...Food Show

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Sep 13, 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.

09.13.21 (Update)

Reporting on the Mirror – CNN

  • Stelter derides Fox's non-news, praises CNN for...non-news.

Back in February, Fox News revealed some of their scheduling changes, including the announcement of Greg Gutfeld's new talk show at 11 pm. At the time, Mr. Stelter was critical of the network moving further to the right, as well as displacing actual news formats for personality-based non-news shows.

- "Need even more evidence of Fox's actual priorities? On Wednesday, the channel announced that it was pushing Shannon Bream's conservative newscast back an hour to make way for an 11 pm program hosted by right-wing jokester Greg Gutfeld. Fox described Gutfeld's show as being a 'comedic hour featuring parodies on current events and signature monologues.' Bream will move back to midnight ET. The announcement came just a day after Lachlan Murdoch claimed to investors that the channel isn't moving further to the right..."

Funny how today there is less criticism heard about non-news formats in primetime, as Stelter raves over the fact that CNN won an Emmy for Stanly Tucci's program "Searching For Italy." For the record, the actor's non-news show about food appears on Sunday evenings at 9 pm.

Body Checking The Fact Checkers – WASHINGTON POST

  • Asking for papers like the Stasi? Fact Check TRUE.

Sometimes it is what is not said that exposes the bias in a journalist. More so when it is an avowed fact-checker at a major newspaper. 

WaPo's Glenn Kessler recently visited New York City, and he encountered the new vaccine documentation requirements in the city. See if you can determine his attitude about the restrictive policy – and if, in his uncritical analysis, he makes a comparison to voter ID requirements. Seems like producing an identification card AND proof of vaccination is easier than a racist voter ID. 

Stealth Story Evolution – LOS ANGELES TIMES

  • Taking a break from the slanted Larry Elder coverage…

Over at partner site RedState, I recently covered the resignations of a number of high-profile Hollywood names from the women's rights group Time's Up. The mass celebrity exit was due to a number of stories emerging about how the executives of the organization, designed to protect female victims of sexual harassment, helped Andrew Cuomo with his sexual harassment charges.

This followed a string of very questionable decisions the group had made against the women it was supposed to assist by design. One of those was Biden accuser Tara Reade, who reached out to Time's Up for help against a very powerful man. She was cast away by the outfit; turns out a number of high-ranking executives had relationships with Biden and the Obama administration. Sorry, Tara.

Now, the LA Times is getting into the act of whitewashing the issue. In a story about the group, the paper went in and stealth-edited their article, removing mentions of Reade and her charges against Biden.

Blue-Anon – DAILY BEAST

  • Falling for the hype they are selling.

It gets rather revealing when you see a journalist falling prey to the very hysteria being sold in the media complex. With a child about to begin classes, Spencer Ackerman expresses a deep anxiety about his child going to classes. This only happens when you believe the hysteria pushed by the same media complex within which he works. 

I could point him to some empirical evidence to calm his nerves, such as Florida schools being opened last year with negligible amounts of Covid cases. Also helpful to note, those reopenings took place months before the vaccine was available, something that is a vast improvement this year.

09.13.21 (Original)

 Reporting on the Mirror – CNN

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, there were countless examples of remembrances and the paying of respect. There also were no shortages of the scaldingly hot takes made in a thirsty bid to be noticed as a contrarian. But there was one notably desperate and insipid version from CNN's Brian Stelter to cast his industry as heroic on that fateful date. 

While Mr. Stelter attempted to pass this off as the quote from another author, after being called out for his stunted lack of insight, he was the one to suggest our leaders were in bunkers as these heroic anchormen were...safely secure inside studios. These preening figures in Armani fashions and silk ties were not the heroic leaders. It was those in fire gear and boots and gauntlet gloves. They were risking their lives under collapsing skyscrapers, not watching the action while under studio spotlights.

Also of note – two of those three "leaders" had to quit in shame after severe violations of journalism ethics.

DNC PR Firm – APPLE NEWS

  • Sending the Democratic narrative to every cell phone user they can reach.

Apple News saw the commemoration of the 9/11 attacks as the perfect time to resort to agitprop. After all, hasn't everyone made the connection that terrorists from the Middle East made their connection to a domestic event two decades and three presidents later??

Anti-Social Media – NBC NEWS

  • No better way to memorialize the uniting that took place after 9/11 than by dividing the nation on vaccines.

The day after the country was pulled back to the feeling of togetherness we all shared in the wake of the terror attacks, "Meet The Press'" Chuck Todd felt the need to be divisive even as he noted this was considered the day of unity. 

- "For a while at least, the spirit of September 12 helped the country divided over the 2000 election unite against a common enemy."

So what does Mr. Todd do on September 12? He turns churlish and drives a wedge between the populace.

- "Not so now in the fight against our current enemy, Covid-19 – where the Red-Blue Conservative-Liberal dividing line now separates the vaccinated and unvaccinated." 

Not only is Chuck Todd engaging in the very behavior that defies the unity he acknowledges, but he reveals the flaw in the thinking of both the press and the administration regarding the vaccine rates. There is a problem with this reliance on the narrative from the press and President Biden – it is not supported by the data.

Legalized Press-titution – THE ATLANTIC

  • When you cannot tell if he was fed the talking points from Media Matters or the White House.

David Frum was on a roll yesterday. The man who still claims to adhere to conservatism (all while, like all Never Trump former-cons, never offering up conservative solutions) delivered a lengthy Twitter thread that gleefully pointed out the numerous businesses which were bowing to President Biden's mask mandate. In over a dozen tweets, Frum opened with, "How's the mass civil disobedience campaign against vaccine mandates going?" as he mocked the alleged organized effort to oppose the mandate. 

At no point, of course, does the True-Con™ ever come close to being critical of the super-constitutional effort because that would impact his cheerleading for Joe Biden's overreach.

Artisanal-Crafted Narratives – CNN

Putting faith in any poll is forever a dicey proposition. Exactly like computer programming, when you put in junk programming, you get garbage results. CNN took this to a shameless level when it blared out how their newest poll shows "Most Republicans want Trump as the GOP's leader." It is here one might say, "But there was one small problem with this poll," except it was not small; it was hilariously monstrous in its error. 

Most thinking people would say that in order to glean the thinking of a political party membership, you would actually poll those members. CNN, however, tells us what conservatives think by barely including them in their poll. Here is the breakdown of those responding to the questions: 

  • DEMOCRATS 35%
  • INDEPENDENTS 36%
  • REPUBLICANS 29%

In determining the thought process of the GOP, they could not even have Republicans represented with one-third of their polling audience. Their methodology was so bad that another polling firm not only called out the network for the shoddy work but illustrated the problem.