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WH Culls the Press Corps, Praise for Biden Being on Vacation Again, and Stop Politicizing Soccer!

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Aug 07, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

08.04.23

1st Amendment Strike Force – THE WHITE HOUSE

  • We have it on good authority that this is a direct threat to our democracy.

Flashback to the Trump years when the media would carp and moan on the regular that Donald Trump was disrespecting journalists. Calling their outlets names, canceling events involving the press, and yanking the credentials of select journos like Jim Acosta were said to have deep ramifications in injuring the freedom of the press.

We bring this up because it has been announced that the White House Press Office has cut off a large number of journalists from having access any longer.

Cutting about one-third of the credentialed journalists to the tune of hundreds of names is the kind of thing we could be assured would generate massive and loud cries of attacks on press freedoms. Right? RIGHT?!

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Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS

Over the weekend, following a Newsweek report, a large number of reports came out declaring that one of the backers of the child trafficking film “Sound Of Freedom” had been arrested for his own episode of kidnapping children. It was a great story for the press who have already demonstrated animosity towards this film, and just such a perfect display of hypocrisy – so perfect, in fact, that it was not something that needed to be investigated. Nope, just run with the bullet points and hype the story.

Of course, this led to many outlets getting strung up by the details. Let’s just start here: Did it not occur to any of these geniuses that, after saying this film was based on nothing but conspirational fantasies, there was a disconnect in reporting on an actual case of what they said is not taking place?!

But more than that, a brief exploration of the details would have rendered these reports mostly baseless. First off, the man involved was charged as an “accessory to kidnapping.” The man, Fabian Marta, is a landlord, and it was one of his tennents who had taken her children in a case of a domestic dispute. Marta reportedly did not properly aid the police when they arrived at his property to recover the kids.

As for his being a “major financier” in the film, as some have reported, Marta was among the over 6,500 people who donated to the crowd-sourced funding for the release of the film. It was estimated he donated $500.

News Avoidance Syndrome – NBC NEWS

  • Is she ignoring his scandals, his vacations…BOTH?!

It has been a tough week for the newly-minted President of the White House Correspondents Association, Kelly O’Donnell. We laughed at her breaking story in Friday’s column, and today she is back with this hot interpretation of events. She thought it clever to juxtapose Trump’s latest legal wrangling against Joe Biden having a placid weekend in Delaware.

Of course, this had to happen just as a report surfaced on how Joe Biden has already racked up 1-year’s worth of time off.

Also quaint is O’Donnell pretending that Biden has no legal issues of his own that are worthy of mention.

Yes, the WHCA is in good hands. 

Legalized Press-titution – CBS NEWS

  • Next, will he join the steel cage match with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg???

The media have been positively fulsome with the coverage of special counsel of the latest Donald Trump indictment, Jack Smith. (Recall CNN raving about the message he sent to Trump by buying a sandwich for lunch one day.) Joining in with the embarrassing slobering coverage was the CBS News team of Nora O’Donnell and Robert Costa. With all the complexities of these indictments and the growing list of items and witnesses this could entail, this duo was on hand to guide us through the most vital of details regarding this latest court activity: Jack Smith is a fitness nut!

O’DONNELL: “Jack Smith is someone who has run over and competed in 100 Iron Man Triathlons. He was reportedly at one point hit when he was on his bike by a truck, and 10 weeks later, he ran another triathlon. This is a man of a lot of grit and a lot of determination.

 COSTA: “His aggressive approach to his personal health and exercise correlates to how he approaches his prosecution.”

Both Kinds Of Standards – ASSOCIATED PRESS

  • When getting the answer you demanded is not the answer.

One element in the feud that has been playing out between the press and Ron DeSantis is how the Florida governor has long refused to be baited into gotcha questions. Frequently, the journalists played the game of pressuring DeSantis into declaring whether Trump actually lost the election. This would have either pinned the governor as a denier, or it would have provoked a battle between the previous allies, which the press would then leverage. So DeSantis has long just refused to play along.

Now that Trump has lashed out at the Florida governor repeatedly, there is no risk, so DeSantis has declared that Trump lost.

And now the press has their answer, but it is not sufficient in a matter of timing, so now they complain about that with DeSantis.

Pathological Media Amnesia – POLITICO

  • Same Stein is perplexed that anyone would politicize a team that has always been political.

This weekend, the U.S. women’s soccer team was bounced out of the Women’s World Cup. (Of course, this led to our doddering president to see the historic failure only to praise the team for its "incredible run.") This divisive squad has long been a contentious group, and this was somehow even more so this year, to the extent that, after being given a quick exit in the tournament, many Americans expressed satisfaction that the ladies were dismissed in rather embarrassing fashion.

Politico’s Sam Stein looked over these reactions and was rather dismayed.

From the kneeling and refusing to sing during the national anthem, to the push to be “fairly” compensated with payouts, to Megan Rapinoe being a loudmouth activist on numerous issues, this is a team that was more than a bit too much into politics and not enough into the sport they were playing.