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NPR Raves About the President It Is Not Beholden To

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Apr 28, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

04.28.23

Reporting on the Mirror – NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

  • It is just wonderful the administration you are not affiliated with will be at your prom, stroking your industry!

On Saturday, the Nerd Prom takes place, as the WHCA Dinner is held, and the press can get the collective vapors as they celebrate their own magnificence. To lend proper insight into just how wondrous this all will be, the president of the WCHA, Tamara Keith of NPR, was on "Morning Joe" to speak warmly about the affair. Both Jose Biden and Kamala Harris, and their spouses, will be on stage, and this is borderline historic, we are told:

I really see that as an endorsement of the work - the important work - of the press, broadly in American democracy.

We here at "Riffed from the Headlines" recall all the way back to a fortnight ago, when NPR was positively offended at the implication they were a state-supported/state-funded news outlet. Yes, nothing explains your independence from the administration like gushing over the president showing up at your party to pump up the industry that has been propping him up.

Low Octane Gas Lighting – POLITICO

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  • We are not certain that Roy Wood Jr. knows how accurate his statement is right here.

As part of its week-long coverage of the days leading up to Saturday's media gala, Politico interviewed this year's comedian-host, Roy Wood Jr., from "The Daily Show." During a series of questions about the event, Wood was asked about the tolerance of the political establishment toward being made the target of jokes:

You don’t think Washington is good at laughing at itself?

I don’t think Washington has a sense of humor. I think the press has a sense of humor, so long as it’s not about their network.

Take it from us – the press has ZERO humor about itself. Voice of experience.

Matching Media Memorandum – CNN

Yesterday, we covered how CBS News completely shamed themselves with a report on Jack Teixeira being found to have a "cache of weapons," when what they displayed were actually toy Airsoft guns. Well, CNN did not learn CBS' lesson, and they filed a similar report, displaying many of the same images, with Even Perez insisting that we were looking at multiple guns, with one described as being an "AK-style weapon."

Yikes…

News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS

We are not sure who in the administration felt this was a good idea, but President Biden yesterday met up with a group of kids at the White House for "Take Your Child To Work Day." Predictably, it went off the rails rather quickly.

While fielding questions from the tykes, Biden was his usual meandering self. 

1. When asked about his grandkids, he listed off most of them, save for Hunter's love child with the stripper.

2. One kid asked who Biden was pulling for in the Stanley Cup Finals. He replied he was watching the Philadelphia Flyers – a team that did not qualify for the postseason.

3. When asked what was the last country he visited, Biden was flustered, stating how he has met so many foreign leaders, he could not remember. (Another kid piped up to remind the president he had just been to Ireland…two weeks ago.)

First Amendment Strike Force – ABC NEWS

  • We will unburden our viewers from seeing content we disagree with on the air.

ABC News scored the first interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he announced he would run for president. In the course of the discussion, he made a number of claims about vaccines – as has been his trademark – and as a result, ABC News decided they would edit out those passages they were not comfortable with him saying.

We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the Covid-19 vaccines. We've used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview. We thank Mr. Kennedy for the conversation.

Presentation Paradox - WFLA CHANNEL 8 NEWS

The local NBC affiliate in Tampa Bay implies that a school superintendent was fired for saying mean things that offended Ron DeSantis.

You have to read into the report in order to learn that he had defied a number of state laws regarding the pandemic, leading to his dismissal. WFLA was less inclined to highlight these infractions – mentioning them once – while giving the school official all the space he wanted to rail against the governor.