OPINION
Premium

From the Florida 'Hellscape' to Complaints Over the Lack of Censorship to Fetterman for…President?

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Nov 10, 2022
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage of 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.

11.10.22

Stealth Story Evolution – SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

Look, it has been no mystery that the Florida media has been gunning against Ron DeSantis. They flat-out despise the man. Thus, when the results of his overwhelming victory in the state on Tuesday came in, they were not only looking at their target succeeding, they were facing their own inconsequential narratives dissolving like a sandcastle at high tide.

The Sun-Sentinel editorial board provided a synopsis of the election, and they did not hold back their biased contempt in the write-up. 

Recommended

Joy Reid Spews Hate Toward Trump Supporters Once Again Sarah Arnold
We Might Have a Problem With Trump's Labor Secretary Nominee Matt Vespa

- "After Tuesday's stunning election results, the state's political transformation is now nearly complete, from deep purple battleground to crimson hellscape, an ideal launch pad for Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential aspirations."

There was apparently enough blowback concerning this partisan overview of the election results. Since publication, an editor went back and quietly changed their invective to now read "crimson landscape." Their contempt, however, has been preserved.

Anti-Social Media – CNN

  • Are we still doing "Denialism'" Is that still something to demonize?

The press continues with their flailing and wailing over the DeSantis performance, and at CNN, it continued as Florida resident and resident harridan Ana Navarro lent her explanation to things. See, DeSantis only performed so well because he rigged Florida's election system by doing things like…uh, scaling back the mail-in votes. You know, that expanded process for the pandemic that was not in place the last time he was in an election? Oops, Ana.

Also problematic is that by CNN standards, this level of election denialism is grounds for her to no longer appear on CNN.

Legalized Press-titution – MSNBC

  • Maybe we should let the guy govern first and prove himself worthy…or nah, that isn't needed.

On the flip side of election reactions, we have the ebullience seen when the Democratic Party victories are analyzed, such as the inexplicable John Fetterman victory in Pennsylvania. On the MSNBC post-mortem on the election, Katy Tur was clearly excited by the Fetterman performance, and she declared something rather brash – the man might be ready for the presidency!

(Note the panel was less than impressed.)

Anti-Social Media – SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

  • Are we allowed to say this is racist? Because this feels a little bit racist.

It shows how far down the rabbit hole we have plunged that we have members of the press corps cheering for others to be silenced. Equally perplexing is when comedians are not in support of other comedians facing silencing and cancel culture activism. Dave Chapelle has been the poster dweller of these very actions and has been largely celebrated for his stance against being silenced.

Not by the comedians on Saturday Night Live, however. It has been announced that for his upcoming appearance on the show, some of the staff writers are walking out in protest. That is so, so edgy, guys, taking the side of the woke establishment like the non-rebellious comedians you are.

First Amendment Strike Force – THE NEW YORK TIMES

The media anxiety over the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter continues unabated, this time with The Times looking at the results of the Tuesday elections and complaining about the lack of messaging control on the platform. 

In carping about the lack of control over misinformation, The Times actually ended up trafficking in misinformation. The paper claimed that Tyler Bower, from the RNC National Committee, was delivering a false narrative concerning voting machine errors in reading ballots. This was one of the items The Times cites where Twitter should have done more to take down messages.

The Times might be grateful they are not silencing outlets – the paper was completely incorrect, as not only had Bower experienced this problem firsthand, it had been confirmed by the Maricopa County account as well.