02.14.24
Reporting on the Mirror – CBS NEWS
Your solution is to get rid of one of the few who was actually committing journalism?!
At CBS-Paramount, the company is laying off 800 employees. This mass firing is also affecting about two dozen in the news division, including one of their dogged intelligence reporters, Catherine Herridge. She is embroiled in a First Amendment lawsuit case with the government where she is being compelled to divulge a source for some of her reporting, and the plaintiffs are seeking to destroy her financially. As her former employer, Fox News, is covering the costs of any legal responsibility, the plaintiffs have argued against this and want Catherine to be fully responsible herself.
Herridge has also had some conflict with the news division head, and it is believed that her dismissal has been one of convenience rather than need.
The CBS suit who did this “got rid of her enemies under the guise of budget cuts," a source told @nypost https://t.co/aDicsBVkwf
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) February 13, 2024
Reporting on the Mirror – CNN
Meanwhile, at the ever-struggling CNN, the network came out with the announcement it was promoting one of its infamous intel operatives. Natasha Bertrand has been moved up to the position within the network of National Security Correspondent. This is her reward for serving as a useful tool in the press for the intel community.
Bertrand has become infamous for being an unquestioning mouthpiece. She was a source to enthusiastically push the Steele Dossier validity. She eagerly pushed that fraudulent intelligence community letter that tried to invalidate the Hunter Biden laptop as mere Russian opposition propaganda. We even saw her PR skills at work regarding the Chinese spy balloon. She claimed there had been similar balloon missions under Trump's term. Then, she embarrassingly tried to explain away the details of the fiasco, suggesting no sensitive intelligence had been gathered by the Chi-Comms while, at the same time, stating there was no way of knowing what it was the Chinese had collected.
CNN’s @NatashaBertrand has been promoted to correspondent where she will continue to cover national security and politics across CNN’s platforms. Congratulations, Natasha! https://t.co/vTkxntheoP pic.twitter.com/RPsTzMECKs
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 13, 2024
Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS
When your family members become secondary to your affection for politicians.
The issue of Joe Biden's mental state has been a remarkably revealing episode in the way the media has collectively reacted with outrage at the news. In one of the more fringe reactions, we are seeing figures willing to throw their own mothers under the bus in order to defend President Silveralert.
Joe Scarborough has used his mother as a means to insultingly protect the man we have come to learn is a dear friend of his and his morning show. Scar-Joe shamelessly uses the death of his mother to shield the Roomba in the White House.
MSNBC’s @JoeNBC defends Biden’s memory: “Nobody has been closer to me in my life than my mom. If somebody asked me in the middle of a deposition, ‘What year did your mom die?’ I’d go, ‘I don’t know, 2017, 2018, 2019?’ I don’t know.” pic.twitter.com/rpDuYw9nqB
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 13, 2024
Of course, this defies Biden invoking the death of his son on a regular basis, and Scar-Joe needs to skip over the detail that Biden was not asked about Beau's death, it was a factoid that Biden himself introduced. (As reported by Scarborough's own network.)
In this same fashion, actress Drew Barrymore displayed this odd maternal fealty to political names. While former First Lady Michelle Obama was out hawking a new book, she came on Drew's talk show, and in the course of the interview, the actress actually said she wanted to be in the Obama family and wanted Michelle to be her mother. The cringe was heavy this week.
The Hollywood Elite are psychotic. pic.twitter.com/lSTwkMSNkd
— Mythinformed (@MythinformedMKE) February 13, 2024
Pre-Written Field Reports – CNN
Remember back when interviews were in question/answer format, and not one-upmanship debates?
In what was staged as an interview with a Texas representative regarding the border issues, CNN's Brianna Keilar instead was intent on getting her version of events broadcast instead of listening and probing the details with a vested local knowledge. Rep. Beth Van Duyne and Keilar had a contentious discussion that was less about fact-finding than it was arguing over who was correct in their talking points.
Part 1 of my interview with Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R - TX)
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) February 13, 2024
Keep in mind that almost 90% of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers in 2022 were US citizens – not illegal immigrants. From the CATO Institute: https://t.co/7syYV2e1pc pic.twitter.com/y0aym2eRmz
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"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.