OPINION
Premium

A Feud With The Atlantic and The NY Times

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

03.06.24

Anti-Social Media – MSNBC

  • So your plan to win over minds is to mock their concerns while voting?

Understanding that the Super Tuesday primary votes were a foregone conclusion and held ZERO drama, you can see how studio pundits might struggle to keep viewer interest. But at Joe Biden's Favorite Network™, they went a bit off course. 

At one point, the "expert" panel of ladies looked at some exit polling numbers and saw that one primary concern with Americans was immigration. This generated a harpy giggle-fest where they essentially mocked voters over being concerned over an issue. This is the opposite of a cagey strategy from the "We Know Better Network."

Gilded Reframe – CBS NEWS

  • Maybe checking with your sources BEFORE filing the report would have been the better course here.

Over at CBS News, Scott MacFarlane is its very eager January 6 reporter. He has been on the case long after the general public stopped caring about the matter, and his fervency was on display with his recent error-filled report. Scott got wind of the fact that heroic Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone was set to testify before Congress this Thursday, and he rushed forward with a report on the matter, convinced it could only mean one thing.

Um, yeah – about that Scott. MacFarlane later followed up with a different message, saying the hearing is on other topics but that Fanone is brought in to discuss January 6 matters. THEN, he followed up with yet another clarification – the hearing has nothing at all to do with J-6, but financial matters and even AI concerns in particular fields. 

After seeing MacFarlane's wide-left claims, the House Judiciary Committee put out a brief post addressing his reporting.

Reporting on the Mirror – THE NEW YORK TIMES / THE ATLANTIC

There continues to be some fallout from the Adam Rubenstein piece in The Atlantic about his tenure working at The New York Times, which we have covered here in a couple of columns previously. Some of Rubenstein's accounts of what he experienced regarding the fallout from Senator Tom Cotton's infamous op-ed and reactions from within the paper's offices have rankled Times staffers.

It has been said The Times management has reached out to The Atlantic requesting corrections. The Atlantic has refused and stood by Rubenstein's version of things, and then, writers from both sides have been sniping and leveling charges back and forth.

At Fox News, Brian Flood and David Rutz do some good work getting the reactions from all sides on this melodrama.

Stealth Story Evolution – Road & Track

There has been a lot of talk in media circles about this one, though why is the big question. Road & Track Magazine commissioned a piece by Kate Wagner to cover the F1 race The Austin Grand Prix. Apparently, the socialist writer was not the best choice for the periodical because, for reasons never explained by the magazine, the article was removed entirely after publication.

There are suspicions this was maybe because of her less-than-glowing assessment of the opulence of the enterprise, which may have angered a primary sponsor, or it could have had to do with some of the coverage of driving superstar Lewis Hamilton. There is a guessing game at play as Road & Track has not detailed why her 5,000+ word piece has been removed. (The archived version is available in the post below.)

DNC PR Firm – NBC NEWS

  • Is THIS really the best source you could find...?

It was rather ridiculous to see last week the Muppet Cookie Monster coming out and making comments on behalf of the administration about the scourge of "shrinkflation." It was more ridiculous to have the president and other Democrats coming out to echo the message from a child's puppet.

Worse still, however, is the media coming out to do the bidding of the administration and reporting on the comments of Cookie Monster as if this were a valid opinion on policy regarding the condition of our economy.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this column mistakenly referred to Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton as "Leonard Hamilton." Hamilton's name has been corrected.

____________

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature covering the nation's deeply flawed aspects of journalism, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.