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America’s Vaccine Foghorn Falls Ill, Parliament Falls for British Tabloids, and CNN Falls to Record Lows

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Sep 21, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

09.21.23

Reporting on the Mirror – ABC/NBC/CBS

  • Their desperate need for validation is again thwarted.

With the writers strike still ongoing in Hollywood there is a clear need being seen from a certain sector. One of the immediate victims of this walkout was the late-night talk shows, and you get a sense of the dysphoria felt by the hosts not having the usual amount of adulation they crave when they came out with a collective vid-cast. At the end of August “Strike Force Five” emerged, where Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver would get together and discuss…mostly themselves.

The ostensible reason was to raise money for the strike relief fund but really it is an excuse for them to remain relevant. This has not been a wildly successful venture, as the 5 mega stars have only managed to generate a little over 11,000 followers, but they forged ahead and planned a live show (that would not include Meyers nor Oliver). But now comes this dire announcement:

Jimmy Kimmel - who has spent years ridiculing people over vaccine hesitancy - came forward to say they had to cancel the appearance, because he contracted COVID.

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Based on his track record we believe this allows us to mockingly refer to him as “Wheezy” at this point.

Pre-Written Field Reports – WASHINGTON POST

  • Just consider there was this much bias coming from their food reporter!!

In a marvelous dose of media journalism, the lighting rod of sports media, Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy, found that a Washington Post writer was targeting an upcoming fest he was putting on. Portnoy had learned that Food columnist Emily Heil was contacting his sponsors of the event to discuss the various characterizations of him that were extremely negative, labeling him as having “a history of misogynistic comments and other problematic behavior.” (Quoted from her email.)

Portnoy took matters into his own hand and reached out to Heil himself, recording their 10 minute discussion and putting on display the deeply biased way reporters operate. 

Heil initially denies using these words, then after having her message read back she claimed that it was used for this one instance, done only to present a negative storyline in order to generate a response from the advertiser. While stumbling throughout Heil claimed she was going to reach out to Portnoy directly, and then he gets her to commit to a call the following morning.

She has since renegged on that interview promise, and is protecting her tweets as well.

First Amendment Strike Force – RUMBLE

  • Britain apparently still does not grasp that we do not want them ruling us.

This week we went into great detail about the about the media approaching charges of rape against Russell Brand and the ethical problems with the coverage. Brand has already been faced with numerous business arrangements being pulled as a result of nothing more than anonymous allegations, one of those being YouTube demonitizing his accounts.

One platform that has not delivered a professional rebuke has been Rumble, and this has been seen adeeply problematic for a remarkable source – the British Parliment. Seriously. The platform received a concerned letter from the UK Parliment Culture, Media and Sports Committe regarding the lack of action taken by the video source:

We are also looking into his use of social media, including on Rumble where he issued his preemptive response to the accusations made against him. While we recognise that Rumble is not the creator of the content published by Mr Brand, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform. 

If you needed any further evidence of a potential witch hunt against Brand taking place, how else would you describe a government seat looking to prevent a man from defending himself against serious charges as well as curtailing his ability to make money that he will likely need for his own defense?

To their credit, the executives at Rumble received their letter and then delivered its own. In a very professional and cordial manner, they explained the authoritarian position the Brits had taken and that Rumble would not follow suit.

First Amendment Strike Force – THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

  • Anyone else see a problem that the man who is incapable of telling the truth is spearheading a disinformation campaign?!

The announcement has gone out that the Biden reelection campaign intends to go out with a strong misinformation defensive strategy. We can count on this to resemble what we have been witnessing of late, when Biden’s Pitt Yorkie, Ian Sams, came out with directions and instructions on how the press is supposed to report on the Biden funding scandals:

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is overhauling its strategy to fight misinformation on social media in the 2024 race, recruiting hundreds of staffers and volunteers to monitor platforms, buying advertising to fight bogus claims, pushing its own countermessages out through grassroots allies — with a bulldog aide helping lead the effort.

So basically it will be more of the same, including the “grassroots” types who are paid influencers posing as organic accounts, like Jo From Jersey, Brooklyn Dad, and Harry Sisson. The other complaint they lodge here is how it is unfair that opponents on the right are allowed to do the very same thing they are announcing here.

Under pressure from conservatives to allow more open speech, platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter) have reinstated numerous far-right conservatives who had previously been kicked off for spreading false or harmful information.

Demo-lition Project – CNN

  • This actually makes things easier for the new CEO set to arrive.

In the next few weeks CNN is set to welcome to the fold Mark Thompson, who will be set to become the new leader of the news outlet. He may have timed his arrival just perfectly. The numbers have come in from this past weekend’s broadcast, and they could not be worse. That is not just a tossaway line – they were, in fact, the worst.

Looking at the ratings the viewership in the preferred advertiser demo, for the weekend daytime lineup CNN drew an anemic 55,000 viewers. The Sunday primetime lineup earned a miniscule 43,000. These are the lowest ratings CNN has ever in the preferred demo – Ever.  In the overall ratings, CNN managed just half of the audience taken in by Fox News, with 345,000 total viewers against Fox News taking in 683,000.

This makes for a perfect environment for Thompson, who is in the position of a new head coach taking over a winless franchise. He merely needs to see a slight improvement due to his moves and he can be regarded as successfully turning things around.

Anti-Social Media – THE NEW YORK TIMES

  • He dropped that much on a meal and he BRAGGED about it?!?!

Just how out of touch are the media elites in this country? We present for you David Brooks, who was travelling and enjoying a meal in the concourse as he awaited the boarding announcement for his flight. He took a picture of his rather basic hamburger meal and declared it - along with his double shot of hooch - rolled in with a toal of nearly $80. 

Brooks declared it was this type of exorbitant food bill, not the quotidian reality of shopping in grocery stores that has Americans mistakenly believing that prices are out of control. This is the level of analysis you can expect from a guy who unblinkingly shells out that kind of money on a cafeteria-level meal because he does not feel it, given he travels on an expense account.

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage of 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.