OPINION
Premium

A Dedicated Fact-Checker Cannot Be Bothered, and Bicycles Are a New Racial Problem…We Think

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jun 16, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

06.16.23

Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – CNN

Daniel Dale is CNN's resident fact-checker. His job is to hold the president of the United States accountable for the facts. This is not me imposing a standard on the man – it is right there in his Twitter bio. Yet…

Dale has a true aversion to doing his avowed vocation. As Stephen Miller has pointed out, it has been approximately three months since Dale dared to dip his toe into the president's claims, and this is not without material to work with. Just this week, we heard of a desire to build a train line across an ocean, that inflation has been cut in half, and that one-quarter of all kindergarten kids cannot speak English. Seriously, Dale should be working overtime with all of the deviations from the truth we get from President Jose Biden (his Puerto Rican heritage being just another detail never corrected).

But Daniel sure has time to delve into the words of conservatives, especially Donald Trump. For his latest salvo, Dale looks at the use of the Espionage Act to prosecute the former president. Even in this concerted effort, he manages to fail. Not only because he is avoiding looking at Biden's own classified documents scandal, but in the example he provides, he makes the claim that another case is emblematic of Trump's behavior – except it was activity that predated his term in office. 

Recommended

60 Minutes Reporter Who Told Trump Hunter's Laptop Can't Be Verified Afraid Her Industry Might Be Dead Matt Vespa
We Have the Long-Awaited News About Who Will Control the Minnesota State House Matt Vespa

DNC PR Firm – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • It's a good look for the Dems, far less so for the news pundits.

The DNC War Room put out a new pro-Biden ad, and it is certainly burnishing the president on his accomplishments. Making this rather unsettling, though, is how the ad is comprised of nothing more than video clips from NBC News, CNN, and MSNBC, all rapturously "reporting" on what Biden has done. This is rather cringe-worthy in appearance.

First Amendment Strike Force – CNN

  • Is it wrong to point out the dark irony of battling fascism by using censorship?!

In the latest episode of "The Oppression of the Press," Jake Tapper spoke with Frances Haugen, the famed "Facebook Whistleblower" who has a new book out. (Oh, look, the press is okay with whistleblowers once again. Huh.) In discussing the machinations of how her former place of employment operated, Tapper turned the conversation toward the elections, both the past 2020 vote and the prospect of the upcoming 2024 presidential contest.

In doing so, Jake pushed Haugen on the concept of Facebook outright blocking and censoring those he disapproves of before next year's vote (at the 1:40 mark):

These companies are worth trillions of dollars. They can hire more people to weed out the Nazis and to take down misinformation, and all that. Why don’t they?!

Low Octane Gas Lighting – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

  • Fire is a global warming side effect, according to the journalists wrapping themselves in the science banner.

The Canadian wildfires have been getting copious amounts of press the past couple of weeks, and somehow, a growing number of people are seriously trying to say that this is a result of climate change. Not only does this not explain how something begun by lightning strikes and has taken place on the planet since, un, forever is a new phenomenon, but it also ignores the people being arrested in Canada for igniting at least some of these conflagrations.

The worst, however, is when a publication with "Science" in its title not only stoops to this level but does so by ignoring the scientific data contradicting this claim that there are more of these fires because of global climate environmental warming disaster.

Race to the Bottom – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • They are convinced those bikes present a racist problem; they are just unsure why.

The press is always eager to assign the charge of racism to frankly anything. Find the most benign, neutral activity or occurrence and race can be applied to it. Pollution, crosswalks, the outdoors – all in recent years have had racial constructs and problems attached by some deep thinker desperate to be the first to recognize the affrontery.

Well, inevitably, bicycles have been assigned this scathing charge of being an object of racism. The only problem: this racial bigotry seems to be found on either side of the opinion one may have toward the two-wheeled conveyance.

Glossary Over Things – ASSOCIATED PRESS

  • Now when you anger the very crowd you tried to appease, you should take time to reassess.

We recently covered how the AP issued a lengthy update to their stylebook for Pride Month with an exhaustive lecture on the various terms and phrases acceptable in today's verbal minefield of LGBT𝜋 issues. In running a series of these commands on their Twitter account, the AP Stylebook stepped on one definition claymore that has the leftists rather upset.

In addressing the controversial term Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF), the news syndicate was rather direct in their suggestion: Don't use this term.

To get a sense of just what kind of hornet's nest they swatted, scroll through the comments and look over the hysterics in reaction to the suggestion that some other means of addressing others be used.

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