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Chuck Todd Meets Approval for Leaving MTP, and Kirsten Powers Never Read Her Own Book

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jun 05, 2023
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06.05.23

Reporting on the Mirror – NBC NEWS

  • Chuck Todd is departing, and few seem upset.

While suspected for some time, this Sunday, Chuck Tod made it official: He is leaving the Sunday program "Meet the Press" after nine years at the desk. After nearly a decade (and another half dozen years under David Gregory), NBC News is still looking for a replacement for the always-watchable Tim Russert, and it has been announced that when Todd steps down in September, he will be replaced by Kristen Welker.

Todd was a uniquely polarizing figure in that he seemed to derive derision from both poles. Those on the right would rightfully point out how he had a strong leftist partisan streak, but the interesting aspect is that despite this blatancy, those on the left wing always considered Chuckle to be insufficiently partisan, and they, too, called for his ouster for years. 

To give you a sense of where he truly lands, I lend you this example from last year, when he tried to insist with Andrea Mitchell that Joe Biden’s presidency has been more divisive and less accepted than that of Abraham Lincoln’s election. (Just ignore the number of states who called to secede before Abe was even sworn into office.)

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Anti-Social Media – DAILY BEAST

  • Projection of this magnitude is so severe, you can only laugh at the result.

To say the press is continuing to unravel over Ron DeSantis is to traffic in understatement. For some reason, since he announced his intent to run for president, his wife Casey has also come under harsh fore in the press. Taking things to a new level of low is executive editor Katie Baker, who apparently was triggered by a jacket worn by Casey DeSantis that read “Where Woke Goes To Die.” 

Baker humiliates herself by trotting out every single false claim about the governor in her rage-filled column. (Anti-gay legislations? Yep. Book bans? It’s there. Banning black history? Of course. Hey, she even tosses in Trump putting kids in cages, ignoring how Biden is doing so at a rate that far exceeds anything alleged four years ago.)

In the claim that Casey DeSantis is a “Walmart Melania,” Baker displays how she is nothing more than a “Dollar General Katy Tur." Her last sentence is just precious, as she closes out a piece so filled with bile and rage it should have been written in ALL CAPS. The projection is strong with this one:

She’s telling us she is cheering on a spouse who gets his kicks off targeting his fellow Americans. She’s telling us she’s down with his message of division and dehumanization. She’s telling us they are ready for far more power. She’s incandescent in her black leather jacket, at her husband’s side—both of them seething with hate.

News Avoidance Syndrome – ABC NEWS

Over at ABC News, they dutifully rushed out a piece based on one of those ever-present warnings delivered by the government, this time from the DHS service. Recall recently that there were “official” threats that Trump’s indictment in New York would lead to violent mobs – and only journalists managed to show up. 

This time, Pride Month is said to be a cause for new violent outbreaks:

The Department of Homeland Security has recently sounded the alarm on the growing threat of violence or extremism, but queer communities nationwide say they have been prepared for backlash for years.

It would seem that waiting years for something to happen would indicate these promised threats do not deliver. Of course, focusing on these threats is a convenient way to ignore how a trans shooter recently murdered half a dozen in a Tennessee school, and Target stores recently were the targets of bomb threats from an LGBT𝜋 activist.

Prose & Contradiction – SCRIPPS NEWS

The press continues its outright support of Pride Month, and when combined with DeSantis derangement, you will get fractured reporting like this. Echoing a piece by the Associated Press last week, now it is Scripps News that details the Gay Days events in Orlando, all while not noticing that their eager insistence contradicts the promised intolerance of the governor.

It seems lost on reporter Stephanie Sandoval that if she is announcing how Gay Days defies the alleged DeSantis efforts, then the insistence that the non-existent "Don’t Say Gay" law is real is a foolish attempt. 

But this report also notes another reality that defies another claim: 

The celebration is still on despite recent warnings from civil rights groups not to visit the state because of recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

DNC PR Firm – NBC NEWS

In a report about the threat of violence against a standing senator, NBC News provided most of the details. In talking about the threat on the life of Sen. Tommy Tuberville, it took over five paragraphs before they got around to letting readers know a Republican had been targeted. It seems more than likely how a Democrat’s life becoming imperiled would be prominent in the headline, and the blame for what conservative voices were responsible for these threats would be featured quite early.

Pathological Media Amnesia – CNN

  • A self-described expert on censorship is in favor of…same?

In a discussion about social media clampdowns on speech, Kirsten Powers had a rather Orwellian position on the matter: If Republicans did not say things worthy of being silenced, then they would not be censored so often. Very hard to argue against such logic!

Making this stunted position all the more hilarious is that Powers wrote the book on the subject, only she saw the problem as something emanating from a different side of the political spectrum.

Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN

  • Video proof the network has learned nothing from its past foibles.

Of the countless examples of embarrassingly slanted news coverage, one of those ranking near the top has to be the infamous field report from Omar Jimenez during a Goarge Floyd riot in Kenosha. With a burning building behind him, Jimenez gave the report while an on air graphic reads “Fiery but mostly peaceful protest.”

Now, the network is running a series of promos displaying the brave and noble work of their journalists on the ground, and the latest manages to actually duplicate that same level of idiocy. 

In Minneapolis, as a street mob upheaval is underway, Jimenez insists, “That is peaceful protesting,” but then he and his crew have to immediately clear the area, and his producer is actually hit with a projectile. 

This would be a clear case then of “Teargas-lighting.” 

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature covering the nation's deeply flawed aspects of journalism, Brad Slager to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.