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Raucous Caucus Coverage, and a Media Lie at the Border Is Further Exposed

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jan 16, 2024
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

01.16.24

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – MSNBC

  • Sounding surprised about the result that was a foregone conclusion.

If there was any surprise from the Iowa Caucus results last night, it was that Donald Trump's margin of victory was not larger, but otherwise, everything was on point. Not that you would know this by watching the coverage on MSNBC, where they almost sounded surprised that Trump won, and we were granted all of the foreboding commentary of what they are trying to convince their viewers what Trump will do as president:

If we're worried about our democracy falling to an authoritarian and potentially fascist form of government. The leader who is trying to do that is part of that equation... Is a much bigger part of that equation.

That word "if" is doing a tremendous amount of lifting for the hostess Maddow.

DNC PR Firm – CNN

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  • The network that thought Trump commuting to an indictment was "historic" coverage, but covering his speech after a caucus win, not so much.

One might think that following his victory in the opening caucus of the primary season, hearing Donald Trump's speech would be considered somewhat historic and worthy of coverage. But the network that followed his cars as they drove from his home, then recorded him driving down the road, climbing the stairs to his plane, and watching it take off was all "historic footage," this speech did not require broadcasting. 

Jake Tapper stepped in to interrupt the speech, and he erroneously said Trump wanting to battle illegal entry at the border means he is "anti-immigration." Then, to continue the ethical lapses, he insulted the voters in Iowa on Monday night, saying that "caucus-goers believe the lie."

Race to the Bottom – MSNBC

  • We still await Joy delivering commentary that does not involve injecting race into the commentary.

On the panel with Rachel Maddow on Monday was Joy Reid, and as predicted, she managed to lean on her crutch when tossing her pair of pennies onto the pundit's table.

There she went invoking race, insulting Iowans, impugning their Christian religion, accusing them of being anti-immigrant, and then in sage-like fashion declaring Republicans would never support Nikki Haley because of her Indian background. Of course, you need to ignore the racist Republicans who elected her to be a governor of a southern state and the racist Donald Trump chose her as his U.N. Ambassador. But otherwise…

Gilded Reframe – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • Far less vigor seen in the reporting as the facts finally arrive…

This has become the "Israel Bombs Hospital" story on the domestic front.

As we mentioned yesterday, the energetic reporting on the Texas state officials barring federal border agents from certain areas leading to the drowning of an arriving illegal mother and her two children was inaccurate, and now the story looks even more woeful – for the press.

The journalists who ran with the accusatory storyline initially ignored that the tragedy took place on the Mexican side, and now, they need to ignore a detail provided by our DOJ. The Texas officials, who were first said to have contributed to the drowning, were not initially notified of the incident until one hour after the bodies had been discovered. The press has been rather reticent to eagerly report these updated details.

CBS News, which broke this story, has made corrections to the piece, but the original tweet linking to the story still retains the accusation.