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A Voice of Sanity From NPR

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Apr 09, 2024
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

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Reporting on the Mirror – NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

  • A rare moment of true media introspection.

One thing we have preached often here on RFTH is the need for the press to take a look in the mirror and begin addressing the issues that are driving the general public away, leading to the steep drop in trust in the press. For this reason, we need to applaud when a voice of sanity cuts through the partisan fog.

On the Bari Weiss platform “The Free Press,” we get a column from NPR veteran Uri Berliner who dares to address the departure of that outlet from a balanced news-based source to one in recent years of being agenda-driven and prone to partisan lectures. Berliner details not only the blatant drift made over the past decade or more but also tries to bring attention to this shift and the issues it has brought to the network. These attempts were roundly met with apathy within the NPR ecosystem, so despite his bringing a sober approach to the matter, we can only expect it to play out further at the publicly-funded network.

Demo-lition Project – CNN

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  • This was coverage more fitting for “Good Day Tempe” or such…

While just about every news source was obsessed with eclipse coverage, it was expected there would be some desperate moves made to be distinguished and draw attention. CNN might have been the winner in the “Most Desperate” category. 

The daytime duo of Brianna Keilar and Boris Sanchez had some fun with a segment, which itself is not so much a problem, but when this is the news network foundering well behind in third place, maybe having them playing mascot goofballs is not the way to turn the tide of eroding ratings.

Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – USA TODAY

We will never tire of the times the vaunted viscounts of vérité will choose to avoid the perpetual lies President Biden unspools on the regular (he has been on an impressive tear this young week), choosing instead to focus on the bizarre and esoteric claims made on social media. These kinds of fact-checks look more like quota-filling entries rather than needle-moving corrections meant to blunt misinformation spreading. This one is a prime example.

For the eclipse, NASA sent up a series of rockets to study the effects of the supernal event on upper atmospheric conditions. But diligent fact-checker Chris Mueller saw the need to dispel a claim made on an anonymous Instagram account that declared what NASA was engaged in with this mission was a sexual cultish practice. This is the kind of wisdom that was analyzed:

Sending a rocket to the moon is really just like a large-scale sex magic ritual," the woman says. "A rocket is just like a giant obelisk. The moon is the feminine aspect, so the obelisk to the moon – or a rocket to the moon – is a sex magic ritual. So is this ritual, and all its synchronicities, a ritual causing mass psychosis?"

Chris was on the case to deliver a distinctive “No,” by way of an answer. He justifies this fact-check by explaining how this post had garnered a couple of thousand “likes” over a week.

DNC PR Firm – POLITICO

The EV car marketplace has been on fire like a Tesla in a hurricane when its battery is soaked in salt water. The major automakers are losing billions and easing away from production, while many smaller dedicated EV companies have folded. The CEO of Hertz Rental Cars just stepped down as a result of his having gambled heavily on an EV fleet which has become a significant drain on the company. Anywhere you look, there is no good news in this sector that the administration is forcing on the country.

In an op-ed at Politico, Mike Murphy looks at this fiasco of a disaster and concludes that Republicans running against EVs as a platform are facing an electoral college disaster in November. Somehow opposing the thing that few people want will lead to electoral consequences. 

Adding to this distemper is an ignored detail that should anger EV lovers; although Joe Biden has carved out $7.5 billion to go toward the EV grid on the roads, after years of the expenditure, it has led to no new chargers being installed. This was reported by…Politico.

Blue-Anon – MSNBC

  • More promised mayhem to arrive from Trump that is supposedly worse than the actual mayhem from Biden.

At “America’s Conspiracy Center,” the fever dream team at MSNBC has a new one in the chamber to fire at its susceptible audience. The latest overwrought and underthought claim involves the prospect of who could be Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. We are seven months out from the election, but we are supposed to get tied up in knots over who he might select for Cabinet positions.

The concept that Kash Patel could conceivably be considered as Trump’s AG is presented by Alex Wagner as something akin to a nightmare scenario. Of course, this fretful hand-wringing over the possible nightmare scenario (for Alex) is that she needs to ignore Joe Biden's administration showing hostility toward uncooperative journalists and working to silence voices on social media. 

Also lost on the MSNBC hostess, is that given the very low opinion the public holds for journalists (based on years of poll results), this quivering delivery will not generate much more than a shrug from anyone but the most devoted unblinking MSNBC viewer.