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A Media Movie Conspiracy

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jul 11, 2023
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07.11.23

Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • Reviewing the movie is secondary to explaining why they don't like the production.

The surprise hit performance of the motion picture "The Sound of Freedom" has the press inexplicably bothered. The film, starring Jim Caviezel as a government agent who goes to South America to help rescue children from the human trafficking trade, has been warmly received by audiences, taking in $18 million at the box office this past weekend, but the press hates this film. Or rather, they hate the making of it.

As we covered here on Friday, at one screening, a reviewer from The Guardian was more focused on the audience, and the production coming from a faith-based studio. Their assessment of all of this has led to a rather uniform interpretation of the film from many sources.

  • THE GUARDIAN – The Q-anon-adjacent thriller seducing America.
  • CNN – It specifically is looking at Q-Anon concepts of these child trafficking rings
  • WASHINGTON POST – A box office hit whose star embraces Q-anon.
  • ROLLING STONE – Box office triumph for Q-Anon believers.
  • JEZEBEL – Anti-child trafficking fantasy fit for Q-Anon.

Now for the dose of reality. These outlets desperately wanting to call this a conspiracy theory have to ignore the film is based on a true story, and Caveizel portrays a real-life rescuer. And, as Slate amazingly admitted – there is no reference to the media's favorite boogeyman anywhere in this movie:

Recommended

Merry Christmas, And Democrats Can Go To Hell Derek Hunter
60 Minutes Reporter Reveals Her Greatest Fear as We Enter a Second Trump Presidency Matt Vespa

The movie makes no reference to QAnon or its associated conspiracy theories.

Legalized Press-titution – NEW REPUBLIC

  • There really is no place for these accurate reports on Biden and his family.

It has been a tough couple of weeks for the Biden administration. Our Dodderer in Chief is currently embarrassing us overseas while the White House and Secret Service deal with the utterly shameful report of cocaine turning up on location. Then add in that the First Family is completely turning its back on Hunter's love child, something even the press has declared an unseemly affair. This is not the classy and dignified arrival we had been promised.

As a sign of how rough things are for the press with all of this furor, we have Michael Tomasky running interference in the most tepid way possible. Mike claims the GOP "gets away with everything," a truly daft idea just days after Hunter walks free from multiple felony charges. See, it is really unfair to hold Joe Biden accountable for these Joe Biden screw-ups because Donald Trump was an ethical mess and we expected him to be…a mess, we think is the point…? How this in any excuses Biden, of course, is never addressed:

If we discovered that Trump had an unacknowledged grandchild, the media would cover it, certainly, but I doubt Dowd would be writing any columns accusing Trump of hypocrisy. Trump’s personal behavior is so low, so crude, so immoral, so rife with tawdriness and sin and misogyny and you name it that nobody expects him to behave in any other way.

Gilded Reframe – BUSINESS INSIDER

Well, this was a complete mess. In the real estate section of Business Insider, there was a very curious report about the state of Florida. They claimed that in looking over census tables, more people were moving out of the state than moving in. Worse still, it reported more fled Florida than were moving out of California and New York. This was a bit of a surprise, as we have heard reports stating the polar opposite has been occurring.

As it turned out, that was precisely the case. Writer Kelsey Neubauer misread the tables and saw the opposite of the figures. Credit where it is due, the outlet corrected the entire piece and even gave a new headline admitting the error.

Reporting on the Mirror – THE NEW YORK TIMES

In a new announcement, The New York Times declared abruptly that the paper would be disbanding their sports coverage, entirely, and all their work on that behalf would be operating through The Athletic, the sports portal purchased by the paper a year and a half ago.

While no jobs are directly affected in the form of layoffs, some staffers suddenly found they would be reassigned to the newsroom. The amazing part was they basically learned of this via text messages, before the meeting that was held to make the announcement – more formally:

The New York Times Guild, the newspaper’s union, blasted the move, saying sports staffers were given “virtually no notice of this change,” with several members learning of the decision in a Times news alert on their phones just prior to being called into a meeting regarding the matter.

Anti-Social Media – CNN

  • Note the very lack of broad media coverage when it is one of their own.

Pretty much anytime there is a legal problem or major lawsuit involving an on-air player at Fox News, that is a news item the other networks hungrily cover. But when someone from one of the other majors has an issue – say, CNN producers busted for sexual battery on a minor – that gets largely ignored.

Saima Mohsin, a former field reporter for CNN, is suing the network over wrongful termination, saying she was told that she could not get an on-camera desk assignment, since she did not have "the look" needed for on-air talent. Of note, she was not let go during the Chris Licht era, but years earlier during the Jeff Zucker regime:

Saima Mohsin was left disabled after an accident while reporting from Jerusalem on the Israel-Palestine conflict. After the incident in 2014 the foreign correspondent claims she requested alternative duties and support for rehabilitation but CNN refused. She also alleges that she asked CNN if she could switch to a presenting role in order to reduce the amount of time spent travelling but was told "you don’t have the look we are looking for."

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