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The Press Steps in a Minefield

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Aug 08, 2024
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

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Pre-written Field Reports – NBC NEWS

  • Curiously, only Republicans are intolerant when saying the same things as those in the press.

NBC’s Garrett Haake has been dispatched to the JD Vance press pool, and he is fond of challenging the Republican running mate with questions, unlike Kamala Harris who does not conduct interviews – during a presidential campaign. Haake thought he had Vance pinned down with an accusatory question about allegedly suggesting Harris was being antisemitic in bypassing Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her VP nominee.

Vance correctly noted for the reporter that there were numerous voices having that very discussion about Shapiro being Jewish might have caused issues within the Democrat voting base.

One of those outlets daring to give voice to that concept – Haake’s own network:

Eight months later, this vocal segment of the Democratic electorate is closely scrutinizing Shapiro’s record on issues related to Israel, as the Pennsylvania governor emerges as a top contender to serve as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. And it’s become the centerpiece of the left’s case against adding him to the ticket.

Gilded Reframe – BLOOMBERG

It could be currently said that we see the press corps of the country involved in Democratic Party Overwatch. Ever since Kamala Harris has been christened as the new candidate, the media have been in full scale promotion mode, so much so that she has refused to do any interviews; this could be because they are not needed, or that the news outlets are so consumed with hyping her that they have not even noticed she won’t speak with them.

At Bloomberg, Joshua Green attempted to give a glowing profile of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, but in the course of touting the candidate, he failed to vet the information. In his claim that Walz had served in Iraq, it required not one but TWO corrections over the course of a few hours.

Both Kinds of Standards – POLITICO

  • This feels like the opposite of “Republicans pounce” – Democrats “tweak”?

As Tim Walz continues to wrestle over his military record, we get this soft-pedal coverage of the reality of his embellishments. Politico notices that the Kamala Harris campaign has altered the biography of Walz as initially produced. It has only been a couple of days since he was rolled out.

But there is no criticism of this, as it is presented as a slight change. It was a “tweak,” and an “update,” but the GOP was rather mean in the way it pointed something out — the facts:

The update comes a day after Republicans escalated attacks on his record in the Army National Guard, accusing Walz of inflating his rank at retirement.

Legalized Press-titution – POLITICO / BLOOMBERG

  • Okay, just because they worked WITH the Biden administration does not mean they work FOR the administration!

The Media Resource Center came across documents that exposed some communications with the press and the Biden Treasury Department showing behavior that borders on collusion, and certainly crossed the boundaries of journalism ethics. Joseph Vasquez has the details that emerged from a documents request first filed by the Functional Government Initiative.

In covering a piece on the mass hiring of thousands of new staff at the IRS, Politico senior tax reporter Brian Faler had sent a copy of a report from his site to get approval to a treasury spokesman, and after receiving some notes on the details, those corrections made their way into the new reporting. Faler tried to pushback on the issue with the MRC, claiming it was an editorial decision that he had no influence in making. This withers mostly due to the fact that Faler had been the one to reach out to Treasury, and he received the corrects – which then made their way into his report.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg was preparing for an interview with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and one of the emails obtained by FGI showed that Yellen’s spokesman was touting how — in Biden administration fashion — they had been given the list of questions ahead of the interview. Sure enough, a large clutch of those questions were featured in the eventual published interview.

Democratic Custodial Services – WASHINGTON POST

  • This admission about the kind of man Monica prefers is cringeworthy.

The hashtag #TamponTim has been trending for days now and there is sufficient evidence that this is having an effect on the Harris-Walz campaign – and by extension affecting the sensibilities of the press.

In an attempt at blunting this effort was Monica Hesse of the Washington Post, who drew up a theory that does not exactly measure up to common sense.

Uh, Monica? We are more than certain that any kid found out to be monitoring the menstrual cycles of the girls in class would be admonished by the entirety of his female classmates and humiliated beyond the horizon by most everyone.

First Amendment Task Force – CHINESE GOVERNMENT

Just in case you held out hope that the contempt felt by the Chinese Leadership for Taiwan might be melting, let us show you that the opposite appears true. It seems the Chi-Comms were rather humiliated by what was witnessed at the Olympic Games, as their duo lost out to the pair from Taiwan – in the badminton competition.

As the match played out, the Chinese state run television broadcast cut away from the game as the Taiwanese began winning, and the entire medal ceremony was blacked out, for bad measure.