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NPR Hit With Hulkamania

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jul 19, 2024
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The news nets were collectively unspun by the RNC this week, delivering their brands of dysphoria.

Presentation Paradox – MSNBC

  • Deceptive staging from the network of truth and facts?

It will never cease to amuse when the journalists who posture and preen about being the paragons of proper truth-telling get exposed as lying their posteriors off on the regular. While the chattering class at MSNBC has been covering the Republican National Convention, we witnessed them at their mission control desk overlooking the convention arena. Or…did we?

Well, to answer the rhetorical: We did not. 

As the primetime pundits appeared to be on location in Milwaukee, it was learned that instead, they were delivering their withering fact-checks and other corrective measures about the deceptive Republicans from their usual network studio, in front of a green screen. Even at times when MSNBC figures spoke with NBC News anchors in Milwaukee, it was presented as if they were in different parts of the arena. 

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Blue Anon – THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

  • Now, we were told this type of thinking is wrong and dangerous – has that changed?

Quick flashback to the past few years: The press has long enjoyed calling out dangerous QAnon theories and claiming that this conspiracy mindset has corrupted the Republican Party, you recall?

Good. Because a new poll from Morning Consult was released this week regarding the impressions of Americans concerning the attempt on the life of Donald Trump…IF THAT IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!

According to their results, one-third of Joe Biden's supporters believe that the failed assassination was actually a staged event by Trump’s people. The way the press is not similarly condemning these crackpots is more than notable.

Blue Anon 2.0 – MSNBC

  • Just so we are clear, ANYONE doing this is a dangerous right-winger, correct?

If there is any wonder why Democrats might be descending down the conspiracy rabbit holes it could be a result of taking their cue from the nutters at their favorite news outlets. For the latest example, we have Rachel Maddow following the lead of her co-worker Alex Wagner. You may recall Alex listened to the speech from J.D. Vance and bizarrely concluded that his mentioning the desire that he and his wife be buried in the Vance family plot in Kentucky is somehow a sign of white Supremacy. Well. Rachel manages to go even further out on the wing nut branch.

Maddow looked at the fact that Vance named his business after some character in the book series "The Lord Of The Rings," which she decreed to be an ironclad practice of those on the extremist right wing. Then as proof, she delivered this piece of evidence:

He called in ‘Naria’ – N-A-R-I-A – which you can remember because it’s 'Aryan,' but you move the 'N' to the front.

Anti-Social Media – THE DAILY BEAST

  • We reserve criticism; The Daily Beast may, in fact, be picking on someone its own size.

There are many ways to display the double standards in the press, and one regards presidential progeny. When a Democrat is in the White House, the kids are announced as off-limits, but when it is a GOPer in the Oval Office then, as we saw with reports on Barron Trump, they are deemed fair game. Even now, we’ll see reports skittish to cover the recidivist in his 50s, Hunter Biden, because he is described as Joe’s “child.”

This bifurcated family standard was on display as John Mulholland wrote this scathing review of the speech given by Kai Trump, Donald’s 17-year-old granddaughter.

Both Kinds of Standards – NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

  • What political party would have celebrities on stage, David? Answer: Both of them.

David Folkenflik was somewhat dismayed to see the variety of speakers taking the stage in Milwaukee. He noted how the likes of Tucker Carlson and Dana White were on hand for NPR’s live coverage, pretending that the Democrats do not engage in the same practice. (Hello, Julia Louise-Dreyfus; how are you, Billy Porter…)

David seemed most affected by the arrival of Hulk Hogan, who delivered some of his trademark phrases and made the media expert perplexed. David comes off sounding like he might be in favor of lowlifes and criminals.

Low-Octane Gaslighting – NBC NEWS

  • We never tire of media figures who refuse basic investigation.

One poignant moment at the convention came when Trump was on stage and they wheeled out a fireman suit once belonging to former fire chief Corey Comperatore, who was slain by the sniper at the rally where Trump was hit in the ear. MSNBC producer and frequent avoider of facts and research Kyle Griffin saw this touching tribute and saw the need to point out that the name was misspelled, a supposed oversight by the Republican Party organizers.

Had Griffin bothered to look at just any reports from this week, he would have been able to glean that this was the actual firesuit from his Buffalo fire department, and his name was truncated due to a limit on the number of characters that could be used on the jacket.